


The Oerban Beads

by Zerrat



Category: Final Fantasy XIII
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Warehouse 13, Angst, Case Fic, Confronting Grief, Enemies to Allies, F/F, Male-Female Friendship, Pre-Femslash, Unresolved Sexual Tension, reluctant allies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-27
Updated: 2013-07-26
Packaged: 2017-12-06 07:30:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/733027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zerrat/pseuds/Zerrat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Warehouse 13 AU. Lightning and Snow are agents for the Cocoon-based artifact collection facility, "Warehouse XIII". When word comes of tourists vanishing from the devastated township of Oerba down on Gran Pulse, Lightning and Snow are sent to find out why. </p><p>And exactly how is rogue agent Fang Yun involved in all of this?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mission Brief

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bombycidae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bombycidae/gifts).



> Content notes: the fic touches on sources of major trauma, including the bombing of Oerba, failing to save innocents from death by artifact, death of loved ones (Vanille and Cid) and finally mentions of suicide. The artifact in question deals in guilt and pain. Please read at your own risk.
> 
> It is what it says on the can - this is a [Warehouse 13](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warehouse_13) fusion fic, casting the characters and world of FFXIII as characters and locations in the show itself. Note that while Cocoon and Gran Pulse exist in this fic, there are no fal'Cie or l'Cie, and there was never any War of Transgression. The world's history/situation has been tweaked so it has the most from FFXIII, and a little influence from WH13. 
> 
> This one is for CMayumiT, who first discussed the idea with me way back. I hope you enjoy the first chapter! 
> 
> You can find some notes at the bottom of this first chapter, including links to relevant terminology and castings. Good luck!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Revised on 28 June 2013 to incorporate beta edits from [fmorgana](http://archiveofourown.org/users/fmorgana).

The alarm on his bedside table went off with an obnoxious buzz. Groaning painfully, Warehouse Agent Snow Villiers rolled onto his side and slammed his palm onto the snooze button with a good deal more force than was actually needed. He rubbed a hand over his sandy eyes, groaning again loudly.

Things had been quiet on the artifact front for close to a week, and the admin and auditing work he'd been put to instead of fieldwork was driving Snow to distraction. As much fun as the Warehouse was... It was also tucked away in the middle of nowhere in the Vile Peaks, and he was running low on patience and getting stir-crazy. That was never a good thing. 

Still, Snow thought as he rolled himself out of bed and onto the floorboards of his room. Throwing on a pair of jeans and an old tshirt, he wandered down the carpeted stairs to the inn's dining table, where a coffee, an orange juice and a cooked breakfast were waiting for him on the table. His stomach growled loudly, and Eden, he hadn't realised he was so hungry.

Snow could hear Lebreau humming in the kitchen, so before starting on his breakfast, he wandered over to the kitchen door. Leaning on the doorframe and waving to get Lebreau's attention as she buzzed up some fruit for a smoothie, Snow asked with a grin,

"Lebreau, have I ever told you that you are an absolute champion?"

"Every single day, Hero," Lebreau said over the loudness of the food blender, shaking her head and shooting him a smile.

Laughing to himself, Snow made his way back to the dining table and flopped down in his chair. He took a long swallow of both the orange juice and the coffee, before starting in on his omelette. What could he say - he loved the perks of his job. Now if only Sazh would come in with some good news on an artifact acting up somewhere on Pulse or Cocoon...

A few minutes later, Snow heard purposeful footsteps on the floorboards behind him. Swallowing his mouthful of cheese and egg, and sticking his bit of toast between his teeth, Snow craned his neck back and waved to Lightning as she crossed the room. He tried to say 'good morning', but with the toast stuck in his mouth, his words came out all muffled.

"I didn't catch a word of that," Lightning said dryly, as she paused to look down at him with a tiny smirk. "If you don't stop talking with your mouth full, you're gonna choke."

Lightning's hand flashed out, grabbing the piece of toast from between Snow's teeth before he could raise a word of protest, and tossed it back onto the plate in front of him. He grinned across the table at Lightning as she took her usual seat.

It had taken them a while to really hit their stride with one another. Lightning had been a member of the Guardian Corps security regiment in her 'life' prior to Warehouse XIII, and Snow had been an idiot gang leader with too much gut instinct to know when to quit. To say their beginnings had been 'rocky' was seriously underselling the frustration of those first few months at the Warehouse - but eventually they'd clicked, and Snow couldn't ask for a better partner to watch his back.

He watched as Lebreau took the usual plate of fresh fruit and yoghurt out to Lightning, and for a while, they ate in companionable silence.

Eventually Snow leaned back, draining the last of his coffee and cracking the knuckles on both of his hands. It seemed to spur some sort of thought for Lightning, and she frowned at the remaining empty seats at the table.

"You seen Hope or Sazh yet?" Lightning asked, before sipping her black coffee.

Snow shrugged and continued to crack his knuckles. "Nah, not so far. Figured Sazh would have slept at the Warehouse - as usual - and Hope... maybe the kid had a sleep in. Kiddo works too hard, especially for someone who isn't even a full agent."

Lightning snorted softly and leaned back in her chair. "Not that I don't agree, but he's old enough to make his own choices."

Snow didn’t answer, and an intense feeling of guilt welled up in his stomach. He pushed the feeling away. It was difficult to lose a parent, especially to an artifact the way Hope had. Snow had very nearly been able to save Nora Estheim, too, but in the end it hadn’t been _enough_. He and Hope had managed to settle their differences - _that_ had been a majorly tense situation - and with nobody else to turn to, Sazh had taken Hope under his wing in the Warehouse.

Snow still felt responsible for Hope's position. Brilliant as the kid was, working for the Warehouse didn't exactly leave him much time to act his age.

He looked up as the front door of Lebreau's bed and breakfast inn opened, admitting a somewhat weary-looking Sazh and Hope. Sazh didn't say anything as he sank gratefully down into his usual chair at the breakfast table, and Snow could practically set his watch to his usual "getting too old for this" mutter.

Lightning crossed her arms, leaning back in her chair as she looked towards where Hope was gingerly taking his own seat.

"What's up?" Lightning asked as Lebreau set an orange juice down in front of both late arrivals. Hope heaved a long-suffering sigh as he took his glass in both hands, even if the corners of his mouth were curling into a self-satisfied grin.

"Last night we ended up getting a ping," Hope said, and really, that was all he needed to say.

Snow grunted under his breath, giving the kid an approving sort of grin. That certainly explained why Hope hadn't risen with the rest of them - from the looks of him, he hadn't actually been to sleep at all as he and Sazh had worked on tracking down the latest target destined for the Warehouse's shelves.

"About _time_!" Snow slammed his fist into the palm of his other hand, feeling revitalised by the prospect of some fieldwork as he narrowly resisted the urge to surge to his feet. Impulse control was still one of his weak points, no matter how long he'd worked with Lightning at the Warehouse. "Should I be thanking Etro or Eden for this one? Where is it?"

Sazh grunted under his breath. "Save the 'thank yous' for when you've taken a look at the briefs - this one is likely to be trouble, in more ways than one."

He reached into the bag at his side, drawing out two copies of the artifact file and handing them to both Snow and Lightning. Snow carelessly flipped the cover open in one hand, eager to get the gist of the case and hit the road already. The file was full of printed out newspaper articles, news report transcripts, and... a tourism advert? Snow snorted softly to himself and flicked ahead to the interesting part - the location.

Snow's eyebrows rose in spite of himself.

"...this is in Oerba," Lightning said quietly, and as Snow looked across at her, he noted that she looked concerned. Snow could hardly blame her - a potential artifact in Oerba meant bad news, and always had. Snow wasn't one to back down from a retrieval mission, but the hell if Sazh hadn't picked a doozy this time.

"Yeah. Oerba," Sazh sighed. If Hope looked like he hadn't slept in two days, Snow noted, Sazh looked like he hadn't slept in four. "A tourism company cropped up there in recent months, offering walkthroughs of the ruins and memorial. Of late, a few tourists have been wandering off from their groups. In an artifact-dense joint like Oerba..."

Sazh trailed off, the meaning of his words not lost on either Snow or Lightning.

"I want you both to find out what's causing these people to go missing, then bag it and tag it so we can get in back to the Warehouse. That all clear?" Sazh asked.

Lightning seemed to take that as her signal to get moving. Snow followed her lead, pushing himself to his feet, and grabbing his copy of the file. If they were going down to Pulse, to Oerba, they needed to get their gear together and prepare for whatever that town threw their way. As Lightning reached the door, Snow just a pace or so behind her, Sazh cleared his throat.

"Oh, and just one other thing - keep your eyes peeled for Yun." Sazh's voice was deliberately even, and Snow watched Lightning's back stiffen at the name of the rogue agent. "We haven't been able to get a lock on her location of late, and Oerba _was_ her hometown back before... If there is one thing an over-angry temporal fish out of water is gonna _hate_ , it's seeing her home reduced to a tourist attraction."

"You think Yun is behind this?" Lightning asked, tilting her head back to fix Sazh with a hard look. Snow noted that where her hand gripped at the doorframe, her knuckles had gone white, and it was only thanks to a year of partnership with the ex-Guardian Corps soldier that Snow knew to keep quiet.

Snow remembered the last time Lightning and Yun had crossed paths, and if he had to be frank, he pitied Yun just a little.

"We’ve got nothing solid," Sazh said with a sigh, looking down at his copy of the file. "Just warning you to stay sharp, do not engage, and use your heads. Understand?"

Snow heard Lightning snort to herself, and she and Snow made their way up the stairs to prepare.

 _’Do not engage’_ , Snow repeated Sazh’s words in his head as he began to throw his gear into a duffle bag. _I’ve got a real bad feeling that it’s not gonna be that easy._

###

Fang Yun didn't feel conspicuous at all, as she strode down the hill from the Taejin district and expertly attached herself to the mob of tourists milling outside the high walls that had once allowed the ruined township to rest in peace. It was all in the bearing - if she looked like she knew she belonged, people never raised a word of protest or even questioned her at all.

Especially not when they were Cocoon born and bred, Fang noted with a curling lip, and these fools were no different. 

As she leaned on the graffiti-streaked outer wall, Fang flicked her gaze over the latest batch of tourists to treat her long lost home as nothing more than an idle curiosity. Cocoon-bred, the lot of them, and their cheerful smiles and excited chatter as they mistold Oerba's history stirred the embers of anger in her chest.

No matter that she'd awoken in a time of peace between Gran Pulse and Cocoon, Fang could not - and would not - forget what had happened before she’d been crystallised.

Fang looked back to the ground, careful to school her features back into an expression of careful apathy. This was the last place she wanted to be - while Oerba held fond memories for her, all of them were now overlaid with scorching heat as the town burned and the people she'd grown up with screamed and died at the hands of madmen. Just being there, even _outside_ , was almost more than Fang could bear.

She had to take care of this, Fang reminded herself. Oerba was her home, her responsibility, and if she wanted to be taken back as an agent for the Warehouse, this was the way to get things started.

The ball was in Fang's court, and she couldn't let it slip through her fingers - no matter how painful facing those ghosts of the past would be.

Fang took a long, quiet breath as she closed her eyes, urging the storm of rage and grief inside her to something more manageable. She looked up, her eyes fixed on where Cocoon hung in the sky and settled on hate. Hate, she was always able to do something with.

When the padlocked, wrought iron gates to Oerba finally groaned open and the tour guide met them to take them through the ruined town, Fang had galvanised herself enough to offer the tour manager a deliberately casual smile as she slipped through.

She could handle this.

###

The flight by airship down to Gran Pulse's surface meant that Lightning and Snow had to fill in an hour and a half on their own. Eager to get a feel for the case, Lightning had opened her copy of the artifact file, and had attempted to read and consider every inconsequential article Sazh and Hope had gathered. With some of the articles and print-outs, it was hard to figure out what the link was, and Lightning's mind began to wander as she looked out the private cabin's window.

Soon enough, the airship would break through Pulse's heavy cloud-cover, and Lightning would be able to see the planet's sprawling cities and dense jungles. Her eyes drew back down to the array of articles on her lap, snorting softly to herself.

The relationship between Cocoon and Pulse was complicated, and had always been. Even if the two planets were united against artifacts - whether the general populace knew it or not - there was no small amount of friction between the two societies.

The small township of Oerba, in particular, was both a point of tension and the price that had bought lasting peace. Lightning shuffled back to the dated reports Sazh had slipped in the file, trying not to let the fiery carnage - documented in such loving detail by Pulsian and Cocoon reporters alike - get under her skin.

Just over two hundred years back, when tensions had been reaching boiling point between Gran Pulse and Cocoon, Oerba had been the victim of a terrorist attack from the most overzealous fringe-dwellers of Cocoon's society. The town was completely gutted by explosions that had been created and placed with the desire to do as much damage as possible. In the aftermath, the two worlds already on the edge of war had teetered dangerously - and then both had backed away.

Peace - even if sometimes it was an uncertain one - had been brokered, even if that peace had come a little too late for Oerba's inhabitants. Almost all the Oerbans had perished in the attack, the unsuspecting and peaceful townsfolk slaughtered like animals by the Sanctum's zealots. Almost all of them - aside from Warehouse XII agent Fang Yun.

How the woman had survived was a mystery that had yet to be resolved in Lightning's mind, and she could not help but rise to the challenge that Yun presented.

Following the... events that had led to Yun's decrystallisation, after Yun had made fools of them all, Lightning had read through the files on the rogue agent, though most of the information had been censored by the Regents for whatever reason they had.

The fact that Oerba - Yun's hometown - was once again rearing it's head on the Warehouse's radar just as Yun broke free from her prison was not a coincidence lost on Lightning, and she could not help but wonder what the connection was.

"You seem thoughtful," Snow finally drawled, from where he was slouched in the seat opposite her.

Lightning's gaze flickered over to him, assessing him quickly. His arms were crossed against his chest, and Lightning had assumed he'd dozed off half an hour ago.

"One of us needs to be." Lightning shot him a wry look, and Snow laughed and scratched the back of his neck. He'd come a long way from his time as a back alley thug, and the combined forces of Rosch and Ms. Nabaat had even gotten him to dress the part of a Warehouse agent.

They might make him wear a shirt and tie, and bind back his hair back from his face, but the grin he shot her was still as open and honest as ever.

"No points for guessing what you're thinking about though," Snow continued, settling his arms against his chest again and raising an eyebrow, even if his smile didn't fade. "Starts with a 'Y', am I right?"

Lightning scoffed quietly under her breath. "She's dangerous. We don't know why the Regents had her crystallised in the first place, and now she's running all over Gran Pulse and Cocoon doing Eden knows what."

Snow resettled in his seat again, before beginning to crack the knuckles of each of his hands - a restless habit.

Snow's smile had faded somewhat when he leaned on the arm of his chair, resting his chin in the palm of his hand. "Not that I'm disagreeing that we need to be worried about Ms. Tall, Dark and Villainous, but Sazh was pretty clear. Bag, tag, get outta there. If Yun's involved, we burn that bridge when we get to it and such."

Lightning turned to stare moodily out the window, not commenting on how badly he'd mangled the saying. She could see the cities dotting the surface of Gran Pulse now, the details slowly resolving themselves. She sighed.

"That's not to say we can't have a sniff around for clues about Yun while we're there though," Snow finally added, giving her another wicked grin as he tapped the side of his nose, and Lightning couldn't help but give him an answering smirk of her own.

###

They arrived in Oerba just before noon, after having walked down the steep slope from the Taejin's Airship Tower. According to the history books and files that Lightning had read, Oerba had once been an isolated, communal and free-spirited town located a good distance away from Taejin City.

In the two hundred years since the incident with the Sanctum zealots, the districts of Taejin had grown to reach and eventually fully encompass the township of Oerba. Oerba had been walled off to protect and preserve the peace of the hundreds that had died there. A part of Lightning idly wondered if the wall was to protect Oerba from the public, or the public from Oerba. Either way, respect for what had happened to the town was fading quickly as living memory had passed on, and the high walls surrounding Oerba were coated in layer after layer of colourful graffiti.

Certainly, Lightning mused as she and Snow approached the open, wrought iron gates that stood at the front of the gutted township, if the Pulsian government was allowing a _tourism company_ to operate from the town… Then they’d forgotten.

Sites of great suffering and strong emotion always made for dangerous artifacts, and in spite of its positive and communal nature, Oerba had been no different in its death. Lightning and Snow had already faced a couple of artifacts that had originated from the town – the detonator used by the head zealot himself, and the rope found in one of the Sanctum zealot’s cell, from where he’d hung himself rather than face trial by the people of Gran Pulse that he’d so hated.

They were both artifacts born of what had occurred in Oerba two hundred years back. The feelings of pain and suffering, madness and hate all made countless artifacts – all dangerous to the public, and all things that Lightning and Snow had to hunt down as a part of their role as Warehouse agents.

By all rights, somewhere as dangerous as Oerba should be completely sealed off – but it was not, and now she and Snow had to deal with more ancient history raising its head to strike at the present. Worse, they were wandering into the jaws of the beast like never before. She resettled her shoulders as they passed through the wide gates, and she took in the crumbling, destroyed town with her own eyes for the very first time.

Gutted buildings lined the streets, and while the scorch marks from the blasts had long faded in the elements, the sheer damage that had been wrought that day was still clear. Lightning’s mouth twisted as she kept her eyes locked ahead – the history books and photos scarcely did the town justice. Ahead of them, in the town centre, a long pillar was thrust into the sky, and as they approached it, Lightning’s eyes picked out the names of the Oerbans who had perished in the blast.

Snow kept walking as Lightning hesitated at the edge of the monument, and she watched him reach out and lay a hand on the weathered granite and faded names.

“You can practically feel the pain,” Snow said, his voice low. Lightning could hear the undercurrent of taut frustration in his words. What had happened with Oerba sat badly with Snow’s view of the world. The man was an optimist of the most chronic variety, still believing in good and hope when there was none to be had.

Lightning exhaled sharply. Snow was a good guy, all things said and done, and after having spent so many hours with him, he made Lightning feel a little more optimistic, too.

“So how do you want to do this?” Lightning asked, resting a hand on her hip as she surveyed Oerba again over her shoulder. She could see a number of tour groups walking through the ruins now, and beyond them, where the tourism company had set up shop in one of the buildings that had mostly escaped damage. Oerba was not all that large, now that she was here – where exactly were the missing tourists going?

“Split up,” Snow decided, finally pulling away from the monument and shielding his eyes with his hand as squinted over the town. “I’m gonna tag along with one of those tour groups, and take a look at where they’re actually going. See if I can smell any fudge where there shouldn’t be fudge and all that.”

Lightning scoffed under her breath at the old joke. “Right. I’ll take on the company management – maybe get some details on how they set up shop on Oerba in the first place, and then if there was anything odd happening when the tourists vanished.” She pulled back her suit sleeve, checking her watch. “Meet back here in an hour and a half?”

“You know it, Light.” Snow’s mouth curled upwards in a smile, and as he started off towards one of tour groups that had passed by them, he raised his arm in a lazy wave. Lightning watched him go, debating for half a moment on whether or not she should have been going with him. They’d cover more ground this way, though, and the sooner they got to the bottom of what was going on in Oerba, the sooner they could leave.

Lightning looked over to the tourism agency’s office, brightly painted in the midst of rubble and devastation.

“Right,” she murmured, and began to walk towards it.

###

Snow attached himself to the nearest of the tour groups with an ease that was actually somewhat surprising. Shoving his hands deep in his pockets when the tour guide raised an eyebrow at his presence, Snow shrugged and offered her a boyish, winning smile that felt like it had been lifted straight from his days dodging the law.

"Sorry I'm late, someone back that the office said I could just tag along with your group," he explained, letting his smile become a little self-deprecating. It did the trick, because she nodded and began to talk about the inhabitants who had lived - and died, Snow supposed - in the building behind her.

Snow let his gaze drift past her, trying to get a feel for the ruined town. His gut instinct - normally so reliable and helpful - had been going mad ever since he'd stepped a foot in this place. Problem was, he knew Oerba was bad news. He just needed to figure out which parts of the place was worse news than the rest, and so far he wasn't having a great deal of luck separating it all out. 

The tour group - mostly made up of people from Cocoon - slowly made their way through Oerba. They more or less stayed on the beaten path, staying in the open streets themselves and stopping regularly for 'chats' about various structures and the people who had once lived within. While Lightning would have stayed quiet and simply observed the natural flow of the tour group, Snow drew the conversation out of the tour guide - he thought he remembered that her name was Adra or something - trying to get that feel for what was natural to her and what wasn't. He argued, questioned, and listened, trying to follow his gut instinct and consider her every answer.

By the time Snow and the rest of the tour group reached what had once been the edge of Oerba, the back of his neck was _prickling_ and those vibes... well, he seemed to be on the right track. He cast a quick eye over the town again, chewing on the inside of his cheek as he subtly checked where he'd tucked his tesla against the small of his back.

 _What exactly is out there?_ Snow wondered, slowly turning back to where the tour guide was speaking about the area behind her. The school building, Snow remembered. It wasn't so much a building as a pile of burnt-out kindling...

"-it was noon when the Sanctum Order detonated their charges. The children of Oerba were in school that day, just about to go to lunch with their families. Because some of the charges had been laid under the school rooms, they were completely obliterated and did not suffer in the same ways that many other Oerbans did." Adra paused, and her eyes betrayed nothing of her own thoughts. "While none of the zealots who planted the blasts made it to public trial, it has been theorized that it was an act of small mercy from madmen who believed the Oerbans needed to die."

That appeared to be all she wanted to say on the topic of the school, and as Adra led them onwards, Snow jogged a little to match her stride. He had an idea, and he was getting serious vibes from it.

"I'm not so sure I agree," Snow said to Adra, casting her a quick look.

"I'm sorry?" Adra frowned at him, looking as if she was a little lost as to what he was talking about.

That was interesting. He'd thought it would have been obvious.

"That it was a mercy," Snow clarified, spreading his hands and measuring her response. "Those assholes that sent this town sky high had no idea of what 'mercy' was, otherwise they'd have stuck the dynamite where it really belonged. Right?"

The tour guide smiled - even if it looked a little strained. "No, I agree. But it is an interesting theory, and our current clientele do enjoy those sorts of ideas."

Snow smiled back, even if he still felt uneasy. He crossed his arms in front of his chest, laughing softly.

"So what's the go with all these disappearances around here? Should we be worried?" Snow asked then, because that was the million dollar question. What did this tour guide know? What had she seen?

Adra's smile faded almost immediately, and she was quiet for a few moments that seemed to stretch forever. "I can't really talk about that, I'm afraid, and all questions regarding those disappearances need to be directed to the tour manager."

Snow did not miss the sudden, stark fear in her eyes, or the stiff way that she'd begun to hold herself. Where Adra had been acting natural and comfortable with her job just moments before, it was like somebody had flipped a switch in her head. Snow considered it - was she just having a tough time with reporters over the disappearances, or was it something more?

Regardless of her poor reaction, Snow continued to follow the tour group around Oerba, cracking his knuckles absently while lost in his thoughts.

Lightning was meant to be taking care of pumping the tour group manager for information. From the bad feeling Snow was getting from the tour guide, he doubted his partner was going to be having any luck with the fellow. 

As the group passed between a set of scorched buildings laid open by the explosions and the weather, Snow's feeling of dread tripled, and he froze mid stride. The hair on the back of his neck began to prickle, and he felt cold wash over him as goosebumps stood up on his forearms.

Snow knew that feeling well - he was being watched. He searched the ruins around him, intent - _there._ In the shadows of one of the gutted out buildings, Snow caught the briefest flicker of movement. His interest in the tour group and whatever the tour guide knew faded immediately, and he quickly and discreetly slipped inside torn-up structure.

Snow's heart was hammering in his chest, his palms were slick with sweat and what he wouldn't give for his combat gloves from his gang days in Bodhum! He was a Warehouse agent now though, and the hero of this story. The tesla was heavy in Snow's hand as his eyes darted around, searching and wondering what was hidden in the shadows.

Something creaked off to his left, rotted floorboards crumbling under shifting weight, and Snow whirled with a curse and pointed the tesla. His finger twitched on the trigger, but there was nobody there. His feeling of dread had not abated though - whoever or whatever had made that noise was still there -

There was a snarl from behind him, and Snow swore loudly, turning again and raising his tesla to hit them with a burst of stunning electricity - but his attacker was far quicker than he was, knocking his weapon from his hands with a blow that made his whole arm jar before launching a truly brilliant left hook at his chin.

Snow had just enough time to take in his assailant's dark hair and tanned complexion before his vision blackened alarmingly.

 _Yun. Of **course** it'd be Yun._ Snow tasted blood on his tongue and spat it out onto the rotting floorboards, surging to his feet regardless of the pain and sprinting after the woman.

The punch she'd landed had done the trick though, and it slowed him down just enough that as he burst back onto the open streets, she was gone.

"Ah _hell,_ " Snow growled in frustration, slamming his fist into the side of one of the buildings and taking little satisfaction in feeling the rotten wood crumble under his blow. He'd lost her. Yun had been right there, and he'd blown it. Grabbing his Farnsworth out from his back pocket, Snow hit the switch to call Lightning's device.

"Looks like we've got ourselves a live Yun spotting," Snow said, before Lightning could get a word out. "Sazh was dead on - Yun's got her fingers right in this case, and it's trouble."

To her credit, Lightning didn't miss a beat, even if Snow heard her breathe an exhausted-sounding "right". _"Come back to the tour agency building. We need to regroup and take this from another angle."_

"Gotcha, Light. Be there in ten." Snow closed the Farnsworth and took one last, long look around the area, his gut telling him in no uncertain terms that that Yun was still watching him from the shadows. He rolled his shoulders, resettling himself and rubbing his jaw, and then began to make his way back to the tourism agency office at the center of town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so we've got the following castings;
> 
> Claire "Lightning" Farron as [Myka Bering](http://warehouse13.wikia.com/wiki/Myka_Bering).  
> Snow Villiers as [Pete Lattimer](http://warehouse13.wikia.com/wiki/Peter_Lattimer), Lightning's partner.  
> Oerba Yun Fang as [Helena "H.G" Wells](http://warehouse13.wikia.com/wiki/Helena_G._Wells), the woman with a major chip on her shoulder, who endured two hundred years of living dead in stasis.  
> Sazh Katzroy as [Artie Nielsen](http://warehouse13.wikia.com/wiki/Arthur_Nielsen), the senior Warehouse XIII agent.  
> Hope Estheim as [Claudia Donovan](http://warehouse13.wikia.com/wiki/Claudia_Donovan).  
> Lebreau as [Leena](http://warehouse13.wikia.com/wiki/Leena).  
> Jihl Nabaat as [Mrs. Frederick](http://warehouse13.wikia.com/wiki/Irene_Frederic).  
> Yaag Rosch as [Benedict Valda](http://warehouse13.wikia.com/wiki/Benedict_Valda).
> 
> Other terminology: [Farnsworth](http://warehouse13.wikia.com/wiki/Farnsworth), [Tesla](http://warehouse13.wikia.com/wiki/Tesla).
> 
> Fun fact: "Oerba Beads" is a trade material in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy.


	2. Negotiations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get more intense in Oerba as Lightning and Snow decide on a course of action.

Lightning looked up as Snow ducked through the agency doorway, and winced sympathetically as he pointed to the rising red welt on his jaw and cheek. Lightning had been on the receiving end of Yun's punches during their last brutal encounter, and she'd been sporting the black eye and tender ribs for two weeks. If there was one thing she had to admire about that woman...

"Packs a punch, huh?" Lightning said by way of greeting, and Snow chuckled. Well, that was a good sign - if his sense of humour was still intact, then Yun hadn't done any lasting damage.

"No more than you do," Snow retorted good-naturedly, sinking gratefully into the chair beside her and rubbing his face.

Lightning cast a critical eye over him - his suit pants were dusty from his fight with Yun, and his shirt still had rotting wood splinters clinging to the weave. So Yun had been hiding somewhere in the wrecked houses, Lightning deduced, crossing her arms against her chest and frowning at the roof.

Yun would be difficult to track, then. Destroyed town or not, there was nobody alive who would know Oerba the way Yun did, and now that she knew they were there, bringing her in just got a whole lot more difficult.

"What's the go here?" Snow asked then, and Lightning snorted to herself in disgust.

In the half hour they'd been in Oerba, she'd been forcefully redirected more times than she could count. Every time she'd managed to corner one of the tour guides flitting in and out of the brightly-lit agency building, she'd gotten hit with a carefully blank stare.

They would not know what Lightning was talking about, or they would carefully inform her that all questions about the disappearances were to be directed at the tour agency manager, or that the agency had received advice from the agency's legal team that they were not authorised to speak on the matter.

Lightning was no stranger to getting through red tape, and normally she was able to force her way through by applying just the right sort of pressure to people she read as the weakest links. So far she'd had no luck, and just when she'd corner one, two more would carefully redirect her.

The whole fiasco was enough to make Lightning want to throw something, and she'd only barely kept a lid on her simmering temper. It was halfway through her last attempt at getting through to a meeting with the agency manager that she realised where she'd seen the emotion reflected in their eyes, when they thought she wasn't looking.

Fear, plain and simple, and that expression alone told Lightning volumes. It wasn't nearly enough, though. What were they hiding? More importantly... what were they afraid of?

"Let's just say that the tour manager knows that I'm here, and isn't having any of it," Lightning said finally, casting Snow an irritable look when he grinned.

"So you haven't tried busting down the door yet?" he asked, and she swatted his shoulder with the back of her hand.

"Don't tempt me. If this asshole keeps it up, I might do just that." Lightning crossed her arms against her chest. "Tell me about what's happening with Yun. How'd she get the jump on you?"

"Caught sight of something in one of the buildings, and then hit me from behind." Snow heaved a sigh. "I lost her. What do you think she wants with Oerba? You'd think she'd hate this place."

"That might be the thing. Hate." At Snow's questioning look, Lightning continued. "Maybe she's mad that the place has become a tourist attraction - maybe she wants to teach them all a lesson."

Snow tapped his cheek thoughtfully, his blue eyes narrowed. "You mentioned something like that this morning. You reckon she's masterminding the whole disappearing tourists thing?"

"We don't know what she's capable of." Lightning shook her head. Her fight with Yun back at the Warehouse flashed to mind, a reminder of just how deadly the rogue agent could be. Someone who was knowledgeable of artifacts, someone who had her own agenda to follow... The priority for this mission was clear to her. "She was crystallised for a reason."

Snow got the message immediately, a fire seemed to kindle in his eyes as he shot her a quick smirk. "You wanna start looking for Yun out there?"

Lightning scoffed, rising to her feet and offering her partner her hand to help him to his feet. "Might be a better use of my time than getting stonewalled at every turn here."

"And you get the chance to whale on Yun the way you want to," Snow pointed out, and not unfairly so. She _had_ been rather focused on Yun's potential role in the mission, and while Snow could be a little oblivious, he was far from a complete fool.

Lightning shook her head, a reluctant smile tugging at her lips as they walked for the agency doorway. "Was I that obvious?"

Snow just laughed.

###

Snow and Lightning ended up splitting to search for Yun in the Oerban ruins. While Lightning had some reservations about dividing their resources when they had both Yun and an artifact to contend with, Snow had beaten her down.

He could take care of himself, he'd reminded Lightning, same as always. Yun's presence didn't really change that, and they needed to cover as much ground as possible. Lightning had hesitated, looking conflicted. The hell if Snow couldn't blame her, but in the end, she'd nodded and taken the west side of the old township. That had suited Snow just fine - he had a _feeling_ about the east side.

"Just remember to give me a buzz if you so much as spot her from a distance," Lightning had reminded him, before turning sharply to start her own search. Snow had nodded.

"Same goes for you, Light," he'd called after her, his lips twitching into a smile as he heard her scoff. "No more brawling with Yun without me there to back you up, got it?"

###

From where she crouched in the debris of the old bake house, Fang watched the two Warehouse XIII agents linger out the front of the tourism agency office, before they split off in separate directions. Fang pressed herself back further into the side of the building as Agent Farron passed by her hiding spot a little too close for comfort. Her eyes narrowed warily, she watched the agent’s retreating back carefully until it had vanished from sight.

Only then did she allow herself to breathe easily.

_Of course the Warehouse would start muscling in at the worst possible time,_ Fang thought a little bitterly. _What do they want? Oerba is **my** home and it's my problem to deal with._

The paranoid part of her wondered if the Warehouse had been tracking her movements since she’d decrystallised, but she crushed that thought relentlessly. They had no idea what she’d been doing, or what she’d been planning – otherwise Katzroy would have sent his minions in a lot earlier. She had to take this intrusion for what it was – an unfortunate coincidence.

Villiers had been sniffing around a tour group before he’d spotted her, and the fact that Farron had been digging around in the tour agency’s offices told her enough. They were in Oerba for the same reason that Fang herself was – they had picked up on the disappearances, and had decided that an artifact was sure to be involved. Their presence was nothing short of irritating, especially given how set against her they were, but…

They were still with the Warehouse, and therefore they had access to resources that Fang herself did not. If she could get either Villiers or Farron on-side, she could return the township to its rightful and deserved rest, while moving forward with her own plans – resuming her duties at the Warehouse included.

_Yes,_ Fang decided, dusting the knees of her jeans off and straightening. _I can use what advantages these agents will provide. Though I doubt I’ve endeared myself to them just yet._

It could not be said Fang had ever backed down from a challenge, and the puzzle of getting on the good side of Farron and Villiers was no different.

###

That feeling of cold unease in Snow’s stomach had only grown as he had picked his way through the ruins, scouring for signs that Yun had been through the area. Footprints, freshly disturbed rubble, _anything_. In spite of the cold hook of gut instinct pulling him forward, Snow couldn't say he'd seen any signs at all.

Lightning was right, though, even if she'd become a little fixated on the rogue agent since she'd gotten the better of them. Yun's presence was bad news, coupled with an _Oerban_ artifact... Snow couldn't help but share a few of Lightning's suspicions. Was Yun responsible for those missing tourists?

Snow's bad feeling seemed to triple in that moment, and he paused, his eyes searching the grey ruins as he reached for his tesla. Last time he had a vibe this strong, Yun had knocked him for six...

Gravel and debris crunched from behind him, and Snow turned sharply, pointing the tesla at the source. That wasn't Yun - he frowned, something bright against the dull grey ruins catching his attention somehow and drawing it with frightening force. Beads, he decided. They were brightly coloured beads, looped around somebody's wrist -

Snow's thoughts began to fade, and his tesla clattered to the ground at his side. The sound it made seemed muted and dulled, as if all life had been leeched away.

The beads. Snow struggled to realign his thoughts, but he was sinking fast into - into _what?_ It was black and reaching out for him, reeking of pain, despair, regret and _guilt_ -

Snow whirled as he heard the rotten floorboards creak behind him, and the world spun sickeningly around him. He clutched at his head for a moment, groaning through his clenched teeth and blinking to try to right the world.

_"You failed me."_

Snow spun again, his eyes searching the ruins desperately. That was - he _knew_ that voice, heard it in his nightmares -

Nora Estheim - that damn medallion still around her neck - seemed to coalesce even as Snow stared. He fell to one of his knees, his fingers digging hard into his scalp as he stared at the rubble-strewn ground in front of him.

_This isn't real,_ Snow told himself desperately, his throat parched and dry all of a sudden. _Nora Estheim died, and you saw it with your own eyes._

_"That's because you let it devour me."_ Nora's shoes came into view slowly, and Snow's vision swam.

"I - I didn't _mean_ for it to happen - I was gonna come back the next day and try again-" Snow cut himself of as Nora's hand ghosted up to rest against his cheek. The touch was icy but solid, and Snow looked up into her black-pit eyes.

His breath shook. That wasn't Nora - but he couldn't find the strength of will to look away, not with the awful guilt and regret _crippling_ him -

"I didn't mean for you to die!" Snow rasped out, staring up at Nora, begging her to believe him. If she believed him, maybe then he'd be absolved -

The world spun, and Snow lurched forwards. He couldn't breathe, like iron bands were wrapped around his chest and squeezing tighter with every movement. Snow clenched his teeth and looked up again, and this time it was not Nora standing before him, but Hope.

Snow reached out impulsively for Hope, his first instinct to protect the kid from this nightmare they'd found themselves in. He froze as Hope shoved a gun in his face, forcing him to rock back.

_"You never mean for it to happen! What happens when your actions end up ruining someone's life?"_ Hope's face was twisted in rage. _"She died! What now, Snow? How do you pay for what you've done?"_

The words struck Snow like a solid blow. It was a repeat of his showdown with Hope after Nora had died, every word and every action replicated in loving, grisly detail. It played on every moment of guilt Snow had experienced since that day and made it all a million times worse.

Snow looked down to the ground, what little fight he had left in him fading into a dull numbness.

"I can't, all right?" Snow said softly, and the world began to fade to grey. "There is nothing that can make something like that right again."

It was a relief when the blackness finally rose up to swallow him.

###

When Snow didn't meet her back at their meeting point in front of the tourism agency, Lightning knew that something was up. She paced back and forth, glancing down all of the streets stretching out from the building, hoping to see him approach with his open grin and apologetic wave - but nothing came. 

_Was it Yun?_ Lightning wondered, her jaw clenching and unclenching as she watched another lot of tourists make it back to the agency without incident. _Or is it just another of Oerba's home-grown horrors responsible?_

Lightning's fingers twitched towards the Farnsworth tucked in her suit jacket's pocket, but she refrained. She couldn't go running to Sazh at obstacle - and he'd have a fit if he found out about the delay in reporting Snow's encounter with Yun. She needed to confirm things first.

"This day just gets better and better," she murmured under her breath, and looked over her shoulder sharply as the door of the agency opened. 

The guide that emerged from within looked familiar - Lightning searched her mind quickly. She'd been the guide leading the latest batch of tourists, and they'd come from the eastern side of Oerba. 

It was a long shot, but maybe...

"Hey. Wait a minute!" Lightning called out as the woman passed her by, and she quickened her stride to fall into step alongside the guide as she flashed her badge. "Can I ask you something?"

"Can I stop you?" the guide asked, perhaps a little sharply. She was an attractive woman, but there was something fleeting and _insubstantial_ in the quick gaze she shot Lightning's way.

Not to be deterred, Lightning made an irritable sound in her throat as she followed the woman's path toward Oerba's gates. "My partner seems to have gotten lost in the ruins. Idiot. I was wondering if you'd seen him - tall guy. Blond hair. Unprofessional."

"Yes, he followed with my group for a time, before he managed to slip away," the woman said, and that jogged something in Lightning's memory about what Snow had told of his findings. This had to be Adra, then. "Normally we do not allow tourists to go into the ruins alone –"

Lightning's eyes narrowed. "That's interesting. On whose orders was that?"

The woman looked away from Lightning, her lips forming a tight and stubborn line. Frankly, Lightning didn't have time for it. Snow and Yun were her major concerns at that moment, and whatever artifact was doing away with those tourists could wait.

"Just tell me – have you seen him recently?" 

Adra stopped by the large, wrought iron gates. There were already waiting tourists milling outside, and she waved vaguely towards the eastern side of the township. "He was wandering around near the old windmills the last I saw. I'm sorry – I can't really help you further, and I really have to get the next tour group through."

"Thanks. That's a huge help." Lightning smiled disarmingly in the woman's direction - who said she couldn't learn anything from Snow Villiers. The woman flushed and began to round up the tourists. 

Lightning looked over her shoulder at Adra as she left for the old, damaged windmill on the eastern border of the town, thoughtful. What exactly did the guide know about the disappearances? Lightning was not one to get gut instincts, not like Snow, but her eyes, ears and training were telling her that something was seriously wrong with the agency. 

_Would Adra be any help? With the manager ignoring all enquiry efforts..._ Lightning shook her head. She'd deal with the mess later.

If she found Snow, she'd likely find Yun, and she was growing more and more certain that Yun was the one responsible for the mess that Oerba was facing.

###

It didn't take long for Lightning to make her way to the old windmill - and to confirm her very worst fears as she spotted Snow's lone tesla. Lightning knelt beside where it had fallen to the weathered cement, reaching out almost reluctantly to examine it. There was no other obvious signs of a struggle, but the fact that Snow had left it behind meant for sure that something had gone horribly wrong. 

_Snow… you're far too stubborn to die. You're not gonna bite it here._

Lightning pocketed his tesla as she straightened, feeling ill to her stomach. It meant that she was now alone in facing Yun and Oerba, with nobody left to watch her back. No matter how good she knew she was, those were some steep odds. It was better if she called Sazh, told him exactly what had gone down -

"Agent Farron, right?" an all-too-familiar voice drawled from a few paces behind her, and Lightning's head snapped around as she reached for Snow's tesla at her belt. 

Fang Yun stood before her, hands in her pockets and a confident smirk playing on her lips. The fact that she'd appeared so close to where Snow had vanished was the final push Lightning needed, and she lunged for Yun with a viciousness that surprised even herself. 

Yun must have been surprised by the quickness of her attack, because Lightning quickly gained the upper hand in their brief but violent scuffle and slammed Yun face-first into the side of the rusted windmill.

It shouldn't have been that easy - Yun was nothing if not an excellent fighter, and Lightning knew that. She still couldn't bring herself to care as she grabbed the handcuffs from where they hunt at her belt - old Corps habits died hard - and fastened Yun's wrists behind her back.

Lightning turned the other woman to face her again, pulling at her shoulders roughly and not giving a damn if she bruised the woman. There was blood trickling from Yun's lip and nose from one of Lightning's hasty punches, but oddly enough, the woman looked... _irritated._

"If you're _quite_ done with the whole alpha dominance thing," Yun told Lightning evenly, her demeanour cool and collected in spite of her bad situation and the fact Lightning still had her forearm pressed against Yun's throat, "maybe we can _discuss_ this like civilised folk."

Lightning's eyes narrowed. "There is nothing to 'discuss'. You're gonna tell me what you've done to those tourists, and what you've done with Agent Villiers. And then you're coming back to the Warehouse with me for the Regents to deal with."

"That's an awful lot of assuming you've got going on there," Yun's lips twitched, turning from a scowl and into a feral grin in an instant. "So authoritative on something you have no fucking clue about – very much the Cocoon viper, aren't you?"

At the slur, Lightning leaned against the forearm still pressed against Yun's throat. The woman scarcely flinched at the implied threat, even if her breathing became a little laboured.

"I'm here in Oerba for the exact same reason you and Villiers are – to find out what is happening to those tourists, and then to put a stop to the shenanigans in whatever way I can." Yun swallowed, her gaze cutting up to meet Lightning's own. "Figured we could pool our resources, so to speak."

Lightning hesitated. If she understood that right, Yun was saying that she was not responsible for the disappearances. She wasn't sure how far she could trust the woman's word, but... Lightning released her with a jerk, glaring.

"Did you see what happened to Agent Villiers?" Lightning asked. Even if her tone was not quite accusing, it was still rough and demanding. Yun looked unamused at the question, clicking her tongue in annoyance as she pinned Lightning with a cold, green stare.

"I saw him in this area, you've got that right. After he sprung me before, I decided that –" Yun laughed a little then, as if it was all some huge joke to her. "Maybe if I talked to him, we could reach an… agreement."

"And did you?" Lightning prompted - it would be just like Snow to do something like that.

"Didn't get the chance." Yun shrugged, her green eyes fixed on some point over Lightning's shoulder. "I saw him talking to someone here – I didn't recognise them, mind. Anyway, Villiers starts acting all sorts of strange. Starts darting around, brandishing his tesla… and then he falls to his knees. Why, I can't say. My guess is that whoever is using the artifact saw Villiers as enough of a threat to take him out."

Lightning bristled immediately at the cavalier way Yun described the events. That was her _partner_ Yun was talking about! The words left her mouth before she stopped to think, "And you didn't think to help him? If you wanted a deal so badly then –"

"Just listen to what you're suggesting! You wanted me to jump in, regardless of the fact I have no idea what the thing does? What are they teaching at the Warehouse these days?" Yun's lip curled in disgust, and on some level, Lightning couldn't blame her.

Lightning looked away, and she turned her back on Yun. After taking a few calming breaths and slowly counting to ten, Lightning asked, "What happened to Snow after that?"

"Vanished, like vapour in the wind."

Snow's tesla was heavy in Lightning's hands as she looked down at it - gleaming silver and brass in the midday sun. Eden, there was no telling if there was a way for Snow to come back from whatever it was the took him down - or if there was a way back for the rest of the tourists, too. 

She closed her eyes for a moment. Even if Lightning took out the artifact and neutralised it, if it had killed him that meant that he was gone for good.

Lightning turned back to Yun, her mind working. So Yun wanted to team up and pool resources. Snow had been taken, and now Lightning was alone in a very dangerous and artifact-dense town with no leads and no end in sight. Snow, he was always willing to give the benefit of the doubt, and always willing to see the best in anyone – maybe even if that 'anyone' was Fang Yun.

Lightning had nothing to lose and everything to gain - her choice was an easier one to make than she'd expected.

"Fine," Lightning said, her voice cool as she closed the distance between them and turned the other woman around to face the rusted windmill again. "You help me figure out what's happening in Oerba, and I might reconsider dragging your ass in front of the Regents for judgement."

"For my many crimes, I assume," Yun replied dryly, as Lightning uncuffed her wrists. 

Lightning didn't rise to the obvious bait, but then, Yun's file hadn't detailed _any_ crimes as an agent of the previous Warehouse. That was a little odd - there were extensive files and case lists on every other agent of the Warehouse, but after a certain point, Yun's had been scrubbed clean. There still had to be something, some reason as to why she'd been crystallised by the Regents back then. There had to be a reason why she was considered so dangerous. 

Lightning wasn't going to drop her guard, but she knew that she could handle Yun if it came down to it. She wouldn't run off to report to Sazh, either, because he would veto working with Yun. Lightning couldn't let that happen - Yun was the best lead Lightning had, and maybe her only chance of getting Snow back. 

"Did you have any ideas?" Lightning asked finally, resting a hand on her hip as Yun rubbed at the red marks on her wrists.

"I say we start by hunting down that person Villiers was speaking to." Yun crossed her arms against her chest, leaning most of her weight on one leg as she propped herself against the rusty old windmill. Lightning shot her a look, before sighing. 

"Did you see where they went, then?"

The corner of Yun's lips tugged upward in a small smile.

"I might have." Yun pushed herself up off of the windmill, and jerked her head towards the northern areas of Oerba. Lightning followed her lead, and they set off.


	3. Critical Pathway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fang and Lightning continue to negotiate their uneasy partnership, and a small amount of trust is earned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Major thanks to [fmorgana](http://archiveofourown.org/users/fmorgana) for beta'ing both the first two chapters of this fic, and then for taking care of this one. You're a champ, bro. 
> 
> My apologies for the delay in posting this chapter! I hope everyone enjoys.

They spent perhaps an hour searching the ruins along Oerba's northern border, and most of it had been spent in a grim and tense silence. Farron kept shooting suspicious, sidelong glares at Fang whenever she so much as dared to reach out and touch a charred-up brick wall. In all honestly, she'd just about had a gut full of it.

Burying her irritation, she had turned to Farron as they exited the hollowed-out shell of someone's home. She plastered a carefully neutral expression on her face and had said in the mildest tone she could manage under the shitty circumstances;

"If you're watching me, you aren't searching for the artifact. _Flattering_ though that is, then what is the point of our alliance?"

Farron's cold, blue eyes had narrowed at the comment, and she had made an irritated, almost unbelieving sound in her throat as she'd turned her attention to the next building. While Farron didn't trust Fang - and she'd be a fool to do so, really - she'd also have figured out that there might still be a chance to save her partner. After all, maybe the artifact or the bearer hadn't killed him - yet. 

Wary as she was, Farron was also incredibly practical, and Fang had to admit that she admired that perspective in a woman. After that, the coldness and twitchy vigilance eventually gave way to a companionable sort of silence as they continued their search. 

Eventually, Farron had seemingly given in to that curiosity that all Warehouse agents seemed to share, and she began to ask Fang questions. They were short at first, and a little grudging - they mostly centered around Oerba and the buildings that they searched, a little on the possible artifact too, but slowly they'd began to touch on Fang herself. Nothing personal, nothing prying, just... talk. It had been a long time since Fang had really bothered to carry on a conversation with anyone, and she'd forgotten what it felt like. 

Farron wasn't nearly as harsh as first impressions had suggested - then again, the only other times that Fang had interacted with Farron involved punches flying and receiving a spinning flip-kick to the jaw. With the decided absence of brawling thanks to their odd sort of truce, it gave Fang more time to consider her enemy-turned ally.

In addition to being immensely practical, Farron had a keen mind that Fang couldn't help but appreciate just a little, and her worry for Villiers was touching, if ultimately useless. 

As they entered another crumbling, double-storey building, Fang nodded to Farron as she murmured that she'd take the upper floor while Fang was to take the lower. Moving quietly through the rubble-strewn rooms, Fang quickly scanned for any evidence of recent disturbances. As usual, nothing caught her eye, and she began to doubt whether or not she'd been right in her observations. Someone had attacked Villiers - and then they'd fled north. 

She was certain that was what she'd seen, but when it came to artifacts, it was difficult to trust her senses - inanimate objects defied reality every single day. 

"Why exactly do you want to solve this case on Oerba?" Farron asked, her voice low from the doorway as Fang knelt down to examine some scuff marks in the dust. 

She shook her head slowly as she wiped her thumb through the dust, careful not to let Farron know that she'd successfully taken her by surprise. It was interesting that Farron had figured out enough to ask the question of 'why' - regardless of any fledgling respect Fang had for her, she was still a Warehouse agent. She still couldn't be trusted.

Fang debated simply lying to Farron, but dismissed the idea out of hand. The woman was smart, and as accomplished as Fang was with untruths, sometimes the truth was best - especially when it was cut and tailored to justify the desired end. 

"Oerba was my home." Fang looked over her shoulder, to where the rusted old windmill loomed through the gaps torn through the building's ceiling. If she closed her eyes, she could practically see how it had been before the blasts - gleaming, functional and _whole_. She pushed that feeling of choking, paralysing grief aside - Oerba was full of ghosts and painful memories, but there was no reason she had to be a slave to them. 

"So I read." Farron snorted softly to herself, and Fang could hear her boots scuffing through the rubble as she slowly approached. 

"You've been at my file. I think I'm flattered, _Sergeant._ " Fang narrowed her eyes at Farron, rising smoothly to her feet as she dusted off her hands. If Farron thought she was the only one with a bit of intel up her sleeve, then she had another think coming. 

To her credit, Farron didn't so much as twitch.

"Apparently, you've done your own research." Farron's voice was cool and clipped, but it certainly lacked the same venom it once had. She leaned her shoulder against the wall, a show of deliberate relaxation, but Fang could see how tightly wound her body really was. "Stop avoiding the question."

A small smile tugged at the corner of Fang's mouth, and she shrugged expressively. _Hardly 'avoiding', just... 'carefully redirecting'._

Fang took up the space on the wall next to Farron, leaning in close and invading the woman's sense of personal space. Farron's jaw tightened noticeably, and Fang ran her gaze across it and down the lines of her throat in an attempt to unsettle her further.

"I'm the last living inhabitant of Oerba," Fang said, deliberately keeping her tone almost conversational. Those words always carried heavy baggage for her though, and she tried not to see the fire and hear the screams of her family and friends as they were murdered. "I'm invested in seeing that its peace goes on undisturbed."

Farron's blue eyes met her own, then, and Fang began to suspect that the invasion of personal space hadn't unsettled her nearly so much as could be hoped. Interesting. Fang immediately began to reassess what she knew and _thought_ she knew about Agent Claire "Lightning" Farron.

"That's a very odd way of putting it. Since you brought it up, how do you feel about the tourism agency operating here?" Farron leaned forward, just a centimeter or two. Though Fang had the benefit of at least half a handspan's worth of height on her, none of it seemed to matter for the space of a few heartbeats. 

Fang slowly pulled back - she certainly wasn't _retreating_ and Farron had no right to look as satisfied with that as she did. 

"Subtle, aren’t you?" Fang laughed shortly, sweeping her arms out wide as she pushed away from the wall - and away from Farron. "No. I'm not exactly over the moon."

Farron was quiet for for a few minutes, as they left the crumbling building and moved on to the next one. She looked thoughtful, as if she was weighing the truthfulness of Fang's answer. The structure - another home - was smaller than the last one they'd searched, and for better or worse, Farron apparently didn't feel the need to split up to search it.

Fang rolled her shoulders, her irritation spiking again. 

_Let her do whatever she wants._

"So. Say you resolve the problem here in Oerba." Farron carefully pushed open a scorched, wooden door, before easing in to scope out the room with her tesla. She continued a little more loudly, her voice reverberating off the walls. "Then what?"

Fang shook her head, pushing open the next doorway in the hall to peer inside. The room was dark, filled with strewn, charred belongings that had simply been left to the ravages of time rather than disturbed. Any one of those could be an artifact, but it was unlikely that it would be the one that she and Farron were searching for. Likely, the idiot using it to make the tourists vanish was keeping it close, so they had to find the _user_ first. 

"You know that I was crystallised," Fang finally said, deciding that there was no evidence that the room had been used in the years since Oerba's destruction. "You don't seem to know _why._ "

Farron emerged from the other room quickly - her suit pants were a little dusty, and her expression was thoughtful. 

"Your file…" Farron's voice was soft, as if she wasn't sure if she was permitted to speak of it aloud. "It's not complete."

Fang sighed slightly, to mask the fact that she was thinking fast. So the records had been scrubbed clean of the 'hows' and the 'whys' of all her transgressions. That was annoying, but also very interesting. She could still work with whatever partial knowledge Farron had.

"It was at my request." Fang placed a very careful and deliberate smile on her lips. Farron's eyes were narrowed, her face impassive. To a casual observer, she might have seemed defensive and closed off. To Fang? Her body language was very, _very_ interested.

Getting Farron on-side would go a long way to make this artifact hunt a lot more bearable, and more, it would drastically further Fang's own plans. She had Farron hooked now - she just had to reel her in. 

The reality of doing so was less than tasteful. She had to do it to further her goals, and that meant trotting out her painful past like it was some sort of prized pony at the spring fair. 

"After Oerba…" Fang cut off as her throat closed up in an odd way that was by no means feigned. "I went a little mad. Screws got shaken loose pretty badly. I did a lot of things that I…" 

'Regret' was the wrong word entirely. Fang would never _regret_ taking out the head of the Sanctum zealots, Barthandelus. She would never regret his screams, the sizzle of flesh or the feeling of his blood on her hands when she finally ended his life. The only thing she regretted was that her vengeance hadn't eased her pain at all.

In the eyes of the Regents, Fang's desperate emotional state had not even come close to absolving her of those crimes. Torture, no matter how justified she believed it, was unforgivable. In the end, with no further options and stuck between a rock and a hard place, she'd asked to be crystallised. The idea of peace from the chaos in her mind had been so attractive... 

The tiny part of her soul untouched by her bitter cynicism had hoped that when she awoke at some distant point in the future, the world would be a much better place.

What she'd gotten, instead, was living death – full awareness while being unable to move and unable to distract herself from her pain. The agony from Oerba's destruction and Vanille's death hadn't faded with the passage of time. 

Instead, it had only grown more potent. 

"I lost everything after Oerba went up. My family. Vanille," Fang finally said, and she impulsively touched the pocket where that folded photo was carefully stored. "Everything I loved, every _one_ I loved. All gone. Now, all I've got left is the Warehouse, small consolation though that is. It's my only constant, and I want to prove myself worthy of going back."

When Fang finally looked back to Farron, the other woman's eyes had softened just a little. Her expression was no longer challenging, but more... empathetic. She no longer seemed so wary. 

It felt far too easy, and she tried to push aside a sudden shadow of guilt. Human nature was a funny thing…

_Compassion from a Cocoon viper, though. And maybe tomorrow, the world will end._

The compassion in Lightning's eyes didn’t even come close to easing that taut knot of ever-present agony in Fang's chest, but it was... it was definitely something.

###

Sazh, as usual, had the worst possible timing when he called for an update on the case. Lightning had felt her Farnsworth go berserk in her jacket's inside pocket, and she cursed. As she'd listened to the metallic buzzes continue, debating whether or not to answer at all, Yun had arched an eyebrow and nodded to her. 

"Gonna take that?" Yun had asked in that insufferably casual tone. Lightning just _knew_ she was putting it on to throw her off her game. With one last irritated, sidelong look in Yun's direction, Lightning walked around the corner of the next building and drew her Farnsworth out of her breast pocket and flipped open the case. 

"What do you want, Sazh?" Lightning asked, and she couldn't help the way her current frustration with Yun bled into her tone. 

_"Well, that's a fine hello,"_ Sazh said from the other end of the line, in the tiny, colourless screen 

Lightning raised an eyebrow, unsurprised by the reaction to her brusque greeting. 

"What can I help you with, Sazh?" Lightning amended with a dry, well-learned obedience, and she heard Sazh chuckle.

_"It's the first time I've sent either of you into Oerba. Could I be blamed for wanting to know that the both of you are still doing fine?"_ Sazh asked, and as the picture on the Farnsworth shifted dramatically - he must have picked it up for some reason - and Lightning was treated to a rather detailed look at his afro. _"Give me something to chew on. What's the news in Oerba?"_

Lightning wasn't quite sure how she was meant to answer that. In the space of half an hour after their arrival, Snow had gone missing, and Lightning had had little luck getting information out of the tourism agency. To make matters worse, she was currently allying herself with the Regents' Most Wanted Woman, all because it was Snow's life on the line and she couldn't find any other leads worth a damn. 

To say the investigation was going _poorly_ would have been the biggest understatement Lightning had made in her entire career. 

As shifty as Yun was though, Lightning couldn't help but admit that she was a little... intrigued by the ex-Agent's stated intention to return to the Warehouse. Yun was also the last Oerban - and that meant that she was the single most important lead Lightning had. 

"Things are fine," Lightning lied after a few beats, hating that she had to but knowing that there was no choice. In the Farnsworth's tiny screen, she saw Hope lean in over Sazh's shoulder and readjust the angle of the device. 

_"Hey, where's Snow?"_ Hope asked, cutting right to the very question that Lightning had prayed wouldn't come up. No matter. 

"Checking out the town," Lightning laughed shortly, hoping that they wouldn't think to question her further or insist on having Snow check in just yet. "You know it's better to let him follow his gut."

_"In a place like Oerba, though, you need to be careful."_ Sazh leaned back with a huge and rather long-suffering sigh, but he didn't press the topic of Snow's whereabouts any further. _"How are things?"_

Lightning exhaled, shaking her head. "This tourism agency is throwing up a hell of a lot of smoke for a supposedly innocent party. I've tried speaking with the staff, and got directed to the manager. I've tried to speak with the manager, the door was locked in my face and I was told he's getting _legal advice_." 

Lightning's lip curled a little. People were _disappearing,_ and all the agency cared about was their bad PR. 

_"But of course,"_ Sazh commented, his voice dry. _"Give me an hour and I can get you whatever warrants you need to start busting some heads."_

"Appreciated. Give me the dirt on the manager, too. Who he is, what he did, and why he might be so scared of some questions." Lightning paused to rearrange her thoughts, her eyes narrowed. "The current list of staff for the agency would also be useful - and anything else you can dig up on them."

Hope was already gone, following up on Lightning's request for information the moment she'd finished speaking, and Sazh tapped his cheek thoughtfully with a finger.

_"Anything else to report, then?"_

Lightning tried push the sneaking feeling that Sazh already knew something was going on. There was no need to involve him at that point, and certainly no need to panic and confirm his suspicions. The longer he drew the conversation out, the more likely he'd somehow trip her up. 

"No. I'll touch bases with you when I've finished checking this next area." Lightning closed the Farnsworth with a snap, and shoved it back into her jacket's interior pocket. 

_Sazh._ Lightning pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing softly. She didn't like lying to him, but the situation had gone to shit and she needed to do what she could to salvage it. 

She cleared her throat loudly.

"Don't even pretend you weren't listening in on that," Lightning said, pitching her voice so it would carry, and was rewarded when Yun rounded the corner with a wave. 

"Spoilsport," Yun scoffed as she crossed her arms against her chest, drawing level with her and leaning just a little too far into what normal people would consider 'personal boundaries'. Her pale green eyes met Lightning's in another silent challenge. 

"At least you're honest, I guess." Lightning held firm, determinedly holding eye-contact with the other woman. Fang's lips tugged up into a sardonic sort of smile as she dropped her gaze up and down Lightning's body, and she nodded to the next building on their checklist. 

Lightning snorted to herself, both exasperated and oddly amused by Yun's brazen lack of etiquette. She managed to keep things interesting though - perhaps she wasn't so terrible to be stuck working with, all things considered.

###

The next building, on whatever list Yun had come up with, was not so much a house as it was a complex. Lightning tilted her head back to examine the rusting, metal exterior, her feelings mixed. From the looks of things, it was double-storey, and stretched back as far as the wall itself. A building of this size wasn't exactly normal, not for a town like Oerba had been, but she was hardly an expert on the matter. 

Yun muttered something under her breath that Lightning didn't catch, her fingers crossing in an unfamiliar gesture. 

"We going in?" Lightning asked softly, resting a hand on her hip and watching the other woman critically. 

"Yeah." Yun tilted her head back and exhaled, as if mentally preparing for what lay ahead. 

_What exactly **is** this place to her?_ Lightning asked herself, and her feeling of unease only grew as she looked back at the building. They couldn't just stand out the front and wait for the artifact to find them, though. Yun hadn't exactly moved to begin the search, so Lightning took the lead. 

She approached the huge doors that served as the building's entry, her fingertips trailing for a moment over the rusted, rough metal. The damaged hinges groaned even at a ghost of a touch, and Lightning let her hand fall. More and more, it felt like she was digging up an old grave. How had the agency ever gotten the go ahead to disturb Oerba's uneasy rest? 

_More, how the hell can they live with themselves?_

After checking her tesla's charge level one last time, Lightning resettled her shoulders, shot Yun one last glance over her shoulder, and pushed her way inside the building. 

The interior was darker than other buildings she and Yun had searched previously, and smelled overwhelmingly of rust, dust and mold. Lightning resisted the urge to press her jacket sleeve to her nose and mouth. She fumbled at her belt for her flashlight, clicking the switch and using the narrow beam of light to scan the vast space she'd found herself in. 

_'Complex' is the right term after all,_ Lightning thought as she took in the large hall. It had to be some sort of communal structure, and the long hallway stretching back into the oppressive darkness was lined with doorways. _This has to be some sort of apartment block - or whatever Oerba's equivalent was._

Lightning looked over her shoulder, flicking her flashlight over the building behind her until she found Yun. The woman scowled at her, less than amused at having the light shined directly into her eyes, and Lightning murmured a soft apology.

She'd seen enough, though. Yun was no longer indulging in the pretense of being okay with going through the remains of Oerba, and the tense set to her jaw spoke volumes of her mental state. If Lightning had to guess, she would have put good money on Yun having lived in this very building before things had gone to hell. 

After they'd finished checking the main communal living area, Lightning moved to Yun's side. The woman was looking more and more tense as she quietly moved through the room, scoping out the corners with her modified tesla, but what was Lightning supposed to do about it? She wasn't feeling so hot about the building, either. 

"You check out the top floor," Yun said quietly, after a few moments. "I'm going to continue down here. Meet me in ten minutes. If either of us don't make it, don't delay - come looking."

Lightning knew better than to argue with her, and she supposed Yun had earned herself a little trust over the past two hours of mostly disaster-free teamwork. She rested her hand on her hip, watching Yun vanish into the darkened hallway, before looking around for the staircase for the upper level. 

When she finally climbed the rusted and somewhat precarious flight of stairs, Lightning quickly moved to the nearest room and pushed open the splintered, old door. Judging by the damage to the hinges and frame, it looked like the door had been kicked in. The room inside was full of scattered belongings that had never been cleaned up or reclaimed - as far back from the schoolyard blast as the building was, most of the personal effects of the room's resident was preserved. 

Lightning made a slow circuit of the room, casting her mind back to the articles on the Oerba incident that she'd read on the way down to Gran Pulse. 

In Oerba's outer buildings, the zealots had relied less on the potent explosives they'd created to get the job done. When the smoke had started to clear, some of the Sanctum madmen had gone back into the fire and had brutally put down any survivors they came across. Lightning was far from sensitive to artifacts, and she didn't get vibes the way Snow did, but even she could feel the pain and terror still thick in the air. 

Lightning swallowed, feeling sweat trickle down her temple and between her shoulder blades. She rearranged her grip on her tesla almost nervously, and she blinked a couple of times to try to help her to refocus. 

She continued to look around the room, her flashlight's narrow beam falling over a moldering old chair and a set of rotting books on one of the shelves. The air was _stifling_ in there - had it really been so hot outside, or was it just the awful combination of what essentially amounted to a rusted shed, and the smell of decay? 

Lightning shook her head, turning to move on to the next room - and then she saw someone, a hooded figure in the doorway. She didn't stop to think - she shouted something and raised her tesla, intending to put down the threat before they did the same to her. 

Something brightly coloured flashed about the figure's wrist, catching some sort of non-existent lightsource, and the yell died on Lightning's lips before she realised what was happening. Her entire vision swam with lights, and she felt herself stagger. 

_What's going on?_ Lightning asked herself, blinking hard to clear her vision. When she looked up, the hooded figure was gone. Cursing to herself, she staggered over to the wall, leaning on it heavily. If she yelled, would Yun come running the way Snow would have?

_"Light?"_ A voice sounded from the other side of the room, and it was soft but so heartbreakingly familiar. _"That is you, isn't it?"_

Lightning's entire body went stone cold in an instant, and she heard a clatter as she dropped her tesla to the ground. She couldn't seem to find the energy or will to care.

"Cid?" Lightning asked, almost begging. Her breath was coming in short, shallow gasps and no matter what she did, she couldn't seem to get enough air. 

_"It's me, Light."_

Cid, large as life and exactly the way she remembered him, was standing in the corner of the room. Lightning shook her head sharply, feeling frozen to the spot but unable to look away. Cid was dead though, and she'd seen it herself. She'd felt him bleed out over her hands as she'd struggled to stem the flow, and she'd heard that final rattling breath he'd taken.

There was still crimson soaking the front of his white shirt and suit jacket, and _Etro_ she could see all that blood running down his chin. 

"Cid - I -" Lightning started, her stomach clenching and unclenching. She thought she was going to be sick. 

_"Surprised to see me? You would be."_ Cid approached her slowly, walking easily, as if there was no gaping hole in his chest from where that bastard had shot him at point-blank range. _"I'm just another toy soldier, mown down in the line of duty."_

It felt as though the wall Lightning was leaning against was the only thing holding her up, but that didn't exactly give her a whole lot of room to back away. He advanced on her regardless, and a little too late, Lightning thought that she should have reached down for her tesla. 

Cid was close, reeking of blood and his cologne in a combination that still gave her nightmares. Lightning flinched back as he reached out, cupping her face with frozen fingers that felt a little too forceful. She felt dizzy as she stared up at his black-pit eyes, the edges of her vision blurring as the sound of static filled her ears. Was she going to pass out? 

_"I didn't have to be, though. If you'd been in time, we'd still be together. You'd still be the rising star of the Corps."_ Cid smiled, the expression a horrific parody of the one she'd loved. He smoothed a thumb along her cheekbone, the touch cold and alien, and she nodded jerkily. 

She'd failed Cid, back in Eden. He'd been counting on her to come through for him, to be there to back him up. Lightning had been too late in the end, and that damn bastard had just _shot_ him. 

Lightning had loved Cid with every shred of her soul, and she'd been forced to watch him die in front of her eyes. How was she meant to just _live_ with that? What right did she have to be here, now, when the best man she'd ever known had been shot in the chest and left to bleed out on the ground?

She felt herself begin to sway on her feet, and she pressed a hand desperately to her forehead. 

Cid caught her hand in both of his, his flesh cold, unforgiving and squeezing so tightly that his grasp _hurt_. Lightning couldn't seem to pull away, not with her eyes seemingly locked on the red staining his chin and the wet hole in his chest gaping open. 

_"Surrender to your guilt,"_ Cid murmured by her ear, before leaning in so close that for one terrifying moment, Lightning thought he was going to kiss her. _"You don't need to fight anymore, Light -"_

White light exploded in front of her eyes, and she reeled back desperately as hot pain flashed through her jaw, before it quickly numbed. She looked wildly about the room, but Cid had vanished and instead Fang Yun stood in his place. What the hell had Yun done? Where had _Cid_ gone? 

Lightning clenched her teeth and swung wildly at Yun's head. The woman sidestepped the blow easily, and with what sounded like a low laugh, she shoved Lightning back hard against the wall. One of her hands pinned Lightning's to the side, while her forearm pressed hard across Lightning's shoulders.

"Shhhh - no, damn it Farron, _relax_ already. You stop with this." Yun's body was tense and warm against her own, and Lightning blinked, staring dazedly into the other woman's pale green eyes in the feeble light. 

A few tense moments passed. Cid was still gone. Free from the influence of the beads, he seemed like just like a horrible nightmare. The fog felt like it was lifting, but faced with her old pain and guilt, she felt like crawling into a hole and breaking. 

There was still Snow to think of - she still had to save him and the tourists. She couldn't afford to break just yet. 

Finally, she nodded, letting her body go limp. 

"Good girl," Yun told her gently, but she didn't move a fraction. "You right, then?"

"I - I think so." Sure, Lightning was shaken, but on the whole, she thought she would be okay. There was no dead ex-boyfriend in the room, telling her about all she'd done wrong and just how she'd failed him. That was _helpful_.

Yun relaxed, and finally, she pushed away from Lightning's body. 

"Now. What did you see?" Yun's voice was still a little tense, and belatedly, Lightning remembered her issues with being inside the building at all. 

She shook her head, feeling exhausted.

"I saw -" Lightning closed her eyes for a moment, trying to think back without retching at the memory of Cid's blood and cologne. "I saw an old friend. Someone I failed."

Yun's eyes narrowed, but thankfully, she didn't comment. "And before that?"

Lightning paused for a moment, pinching the bridge of her nose as she tried to _think_. There was Cid - Etro, and she'd actually been having a nightmare free stretch of late - but before that, she'd seen a hooded figure. The one they'd been looking for. 

"Someone was here," Lightning said, her eyes snapping open as she stared across the room at Yun. Cursing, she moved quickly, staring about the room. She moved to the spot where that figure had been, but they were long gone by that point. 

She tried to sprint out of the room, to try to find some way of telling where the figure had gone, but Yun caught a hold of her wrist in a bruising grip. 

"The artifact," Yun said, her voice clear and deliberate. "Did you see the _artifact_?"

Lightning looked at her, a little angry that Yun would speak to her like she was some idiot kid - then she remembered the flashing of light on beads. 

"Brightly coloured beads," Lightning murmured, staring at the spot in the doorway that the figure had been occupying. That was their artifact - she was certain of it. "Polished wood. Maybe some glass. They looked hand-made."

Yun's expression was ill when Lightning looked back to her. 

"I'll be damned," Fang said, her voice a little unsteady, and she began to laugh as she buried her face in her hands.

###

Snow woke up somewhere dark and freezing cold. His body felt heavy and numb as he struggled to push himself to his feet, but his arms and legs didn't seem to want to cooperate, and he fell face first into the icy slush he'd found himself in. 

He couldn't seem to stop shivering, but the cold wasn't even close to being the worst part. The whole place - Eden only knew how _big_ it actually was - echoed with dozens of screams, the sound never letting up even for a moment. They were begging for help, begging for it to end. Begging for death. 

Snow closed his eyes, swallowing convulsively. He reached for his tesla at his hip, but his pockets turned out completely empty. 

_Awesome,_ Snow thought, forcing a smile that he didn't feel at all. _I am Eden only knows where, with no idea who I can count on as a friendly, and I'm contending with the world's worst headache. This has to be the work of the artifact I got whammied with. Then those people have gotta be the missing tourists._

Snow gritted his teeth, and slowly, he was able to force his numbed up body to play along and let him climb to his feet. He was out of breath by the time he did so, and he stared around at the oppressive darkness, trying to make sense of it all. First thing first was to take care of the tourists - somehow. 

The air in front of him seemed to slide and shift, even as he blinked and rubbed his eyes with the knuckles on the back of his hand. 

"What the hell?" Snow muttered under his breath as the screams around him picked up afresh - and then he saw Nora Estheim once again. 

Just like in his memories, she was screaming and burning as she fell to her knees. Snow stumbled forward, but the sheer heat of the flames forced him back, and his breath was coming hard. Helpless to watch, _again_. He gritted his teeth, his hands clenched at his sides as he stared around wildly.

_So helpless... Has nothing changed? Can't I save anyone?_

She reached for him desperately with hands that were so burned and twisted that they looked more like claws than fingers. The flesh of her arms had been scorched, deep and painful cracks running all over her skin. Brynhildr's amulet hung around her neck, swinging wildly as she writhed, and behind her, her young son sobbed and screamed.

And just as he remembered, eventually her screams faded into whimpers and then into nothing. He was left with a scorched body and nothing but the knowledge that he couldn't have helped her. While he couldn't have _known_ how to help her - the Estheim case had come a long time before the Warehouse had - it didn't stop the crippling feeling of guilt.

The air in front of him shimmered again, and Nora Estheim burned anew. Snow began to shake, falling to his knees as he clutched at his head so hard that his fingernails dug deep into his scalp, and his breath was sobbing.

Again and again she burned. She begged him for help sometimes, and in others, she just watched him silently with black-pit eyes that seemed to smash Snow's soul to pieces each and every time. 

It was an endless cycle of torture, replaying in front of him over and over until he couldn't hear the screams of the other tourists anymore. All he could hear, smell, _taste_ was Nora immolating, and it was all his goddamn _fault_.

He wanted to tear out his own eyes - anything to get it to stop. 

Somewhere in the darkness, someone reached out and took hold of his face in frozen hands.

"I should leave you to suffer. Just like the rest of those Cocoon-coddled fools." It was a woman's voice, warped and distorted, but Snow desperately held on to every word. "You... _you_ I can use, though, arrogant as you are."

_Use?_ Snow's pants for air had caught in his throat. Eden, he just wanted it to end, but 'use' wasn't the most promising thing he'd heard all day - or however long he'd been stuck in this torture dimension. Behind the woman's shadowy form, he saw Nora begin to burn again, and he swallowed hard. 

"Yes." This time, he could practically hear the cruel smile in the woman's voice, but he didn't have the strength left to fight back with. "You will do _nicely._ "

The tortured forms of Nora and Hope faded away - and thankfully, so did the screams.


	4. Conflict Resolution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things come to a head as Lightning, Snow and Fang attempt to bag and tag the Oerban Beads.

After taking a few moments to steady themselves, they quickly made their way out of the darkened building. Losing it like that had been undesirable, but also unavoidable. She supposed that she was glad Yun had been there to knock her back to her senses at all - even if there was now a large, painful welt on her chin thanks to the blow. 

Now that they had made it out into the sunlight and fresh air, Lightning felt the hot, angry knot in her chest begin to ease a little. It felt less like she was going to get sucked under by her own grief and emotion - but even out here, she couldn't stop replaying her vision of Cid and his toxic words. 

Just how close had she come to breaking down and giving up? What would have happened, if Yun hadn't been there to knock her out of whatever stupor the beads had put her in? Maybe that had been what had happened to Snow - alone in Oerba after they'd split up to search for Yun, he wouldn't have had anyone watching his back.

She couldn't help but feel responsible for what happened to him - and more determined than ever to bring him safely back to the Warehouse. 

_So. I got snared but broke free. It gave me a good look at the artifact. Where exactly does that leave us?_

"Those beads," Fang said suddenly, as if thinking on much the same thing. "Do me a favour and describe the pattern."

"Colourful." Lightning snorted softly to herself. If she closed her eyes, the image of the hooded figure and the beads was practically burned into the back of her eyelids. Realizing that Yun needed a little more to go on, she continued. "Most of the beads were brown and white, but the rest? They cycled through every colour - red through to blue and green."

She didn't ask 'why' - she didn't need to. Yun's expression had tightened even further, and the woman began to pace back and forth on the cracked and broken cement.

"Those beads were... a thing of _pride_ in Oerba. They denoted family." Fang bit the words out, shooting Lightning a look as if she would dare belittle a Pulsian tradition. "I recognize the pattern of those beads. My sister wore them every day."

Lightning froze, staring openly at Yun and wondering if she'd heard right. "Your sister?"

"She _was_ my sister." Fang's voice was both venomous and bitter, and that toxic emotion was reflected in her eyes and body. "She's dead now, just like everything else I loved."

Lightning's mind began to race. Calling it simple 'coincidence' stretched the bounds of probability far too much for her liking. 

"Is it possible that she's alive? That she's involved in all of this?" Lightning asked, and Yun whirled on her with a snarl.

" _No._ Don't you even suggest that!" Yun bit the words out, advancing a few steps. "Vanille is dead - don't you bring her into this." 

Yun's whole body had gone rigid in anger, but the look in her eyes was something that Lightning recognized in herself. She looked away from Yun, sorry that she'd even brought up the possibility. Perhaps they weren't so different, after all. 

Lightning wondered, though, if Yun was starting to regret her idea of a team up, given how it had taken a sharp turn for the deeply _personal_. She watched Yun pace in front of her, feeling worry begin to sour her stomach. She couldn't let the woman fall apart - not with Snow's life on the line. 

If Yun knew anything of use, then Lightning needed her to focus. If they solved this case, then maybe, _maybe_ Snow would be okay.

_Snow._ Lightning closed her eyes, trying to force back the fear that maybe he was gone after all. _Stay safe, hero._

"You know the artifact, then," Lightning finally said, choosing her words more carefully this time. She looked sharply at Yun, and she rested her hand on her hip. "Think what you want, but that's useful to us."

"I don't know what it does." Yun's reply was sharp and bitter. 

Lightning understood that she was hurting from the turn of events. Painful or not, it wasn't helpful and it was really no excuse to act so... fatalistic. 

" _I_ do. Your move." 

"Fine. What did it do, then?" Yun sounded frustrated, but at least she wasn't pacing anymore - or looking like she was going to run off to tear Oerba apart brick by brick. 

"Guilt. It made me see that one thing in my life I regretted the most. It made me see it, and then it _played_ with me." Lightning felt a bitter heat swell up in her chest, and she had to force herself to continue. "The artifact tried to make me give up and die, as penance for my failure."

Yun swore violently and slammed her fist into the rusty wall. It seemed like the entire building reverberated from the hit. 

"Yun. _Talk_ to me." Lightning pitched her voice low and a little gentler than usual. "What's the point of working together if you're just going to stonewall me?"

Yun sighed - her expression looked so lost and broken for a heartbeat, Lightning wondered if she'd pushed her the wrong way entirely. Then her gaze sharpened, becoming something more hawk-like, predatory and _alive_. 

Lightning very nearly took a step backward. 

"Tell me, Farron. What was in the tourism agency's main building before they set up camp there?"

"A -" Lightning paused, and her mind connected the dots immediately. She met Yun's eyes squarely. "The file said it was a memorial museum, before the gates closed for good."

Yun was already moving before Lightning had finished, and she had the right idea. Together, they began to sprint across Oerba, to where the brightly-coloured agency building stood in the distance.

###

Fang and Farron made it to that damnable tourism agency without further incident. Tesla drawn and charged, Fang followed the other woman's lead, and they slunk closer to the building, keeping to the shadows cast by the surrounding ruins. There was certainly no need to tip the bastards off that she and Farron had caught onto the game.

Her lip curled. She'd never liked the idea of the tourism agency cashing in on what happened to her home - she felt a little justified in giving them hell for their involvement. 

_Maybe this entire operation will get shut down,_ she thought a little viciously, nodding to Farron's sharp gesture to stay silent. 

Oerba seemed to have become a ghost town once more, and the tourists and agents that had once filled this area had vanished without a trace. Given what she'd witnessed of both Villiers and Farron, Fang suspected that their target had gotten spooked and had decided to wipe all traces of their operation off the map - in whatever way they could. 

Likely, that meant they had used Vanille's beads. Fang's stomach clenched in anger at the idea of something _Vanille_ had owned being used to hurt people. Her sister had been gentle, kind and caring! 

Of course, Fang had been an agent of Warehouse XII. She understood exactly 'how' it could have happened. That didn't mean she had to like it. 

Fang followed Farron as she crept up to the door of the agency, letting the other woman scope out the entrance with her tesla. After a moment, Farron jerked her head, and they both moved inside. 

The agency was as empty as the area outside had been, the counters unmanned and belongings left where people had simply dropped them. 

"Great," Farron growled under her breath, pinching the bridge of her nose for a moment. Then her eyes narrowed. "The manager's door is open. What a surprise."

Fang followed her gaze - a large, wooden door down the hallway stood ajar. 

"S'pose we know where to start," Fang murmured, and she checked the charge on her modified tesla one last time. 

Together, they warily approached the open door, but as it turned out, they needn't have worried. The manager looked pretty damn dead to Fang, but Farron immediately crossed the room to confirm it. 

"Gone. Judging by his surroundings..." Farron's gaze darted around the room, and she examined the area around the manager quickly - a unfinished cup of tea, and a half-done report. "Tea is lukewarm. He's only been dead an hour, tops. Can't say how."

Fang swore under her breath. With the tour agents gone and the manager dead, exactly what did they have left to go on? Her hand curled into a fist, one so tight that the bones in her hands began to ache. She could see Farron shooting her a look, and she had to remind herself that the woman had enough on the line of her own. 

With an effort, she relaxed - just in time to hear the back door of the agency click shut. 

"Shit," Fang snarled under her breath, and she burst out of the room and out into the brightly lit hallway. 

Down the end, she could see a metal security door and knew immediately that their target had vanished through it. When she made it outside, she looked around wildly. Where the hell had the target gone? 

Behind her, Farron bit out, "Ten o'clock! But -"

Fang broke into a headlong sprint as she saw the figure make a break for cover, and she could hear Farron just a stride or so behind her. After a few moments, she drew level with Fang. 

She was fast - Fang had to give her that. 

"Fang!" Lightning panted out, cursing to herself as she jumped to clear some rubble obstructing her path. "I know that person! That's Adra, an agent I spoke with when Snow didn't come back."

Fang wasn't entirely sure what she was meant to do with that 'vital' piece of information, and instead focused on pushing herself even faster, until Farron was running in her blind spot. Ahead of her, she could see 'Adra', or whatever her name was, round the corner. 

Behind her, Fang heard Farron cry out, and alarmed, she risked a look over her shoulder. 

_Villiers?_ Fang wondered. He'd fallen on his partner like he didn't even know her - that screamed 'meddling artifact' for sure. A part of her wanted to stop and help, but it would be sacrificing her chance to restore Oerba's peace and get a little vengeance for Vanille. 

She bared her teeth in a snarl, and continued to sprint.

###

Trapped under Snow's rather impressive weight as she was, Lightning had to admit that she'd certainly been in better situations. Any relief she might have felt at seeing her partner alive had evaporated when he'd slammed his body into her own and sent her flying. She still wasn't sure what was going on. 

Above her, Lightning heard Snow growl something incomprehensible and desperate. His hair was dishevelled, and his blue eyes were stark, afraid and unseeing.

"Damnit, Snow!" Lightning hissed, even if her stomach had plummeted as soon as she'd seen the fear in his eyes. "Get a hold of yourself!"

Her eyes widened as she saw him draw his fist back for a punch that would king hit her skull straight back against the unforgiving ground. Clenching her teeth, she waited until he'd taken his swing and redirected his punch - straight into the concrete just to the side of her head. Snow roared in pain, clutching his wrist and staring at his hand as he tried to unclench it.

A part of Lightning noted that he'd probably broken his knuckles. Concern was going to have to wait, though, and she used his distraction to slide out from under him. 

Yun seemed to have her priorities right, as she'd continued pursuit of Adra. That left Lightning free to deal with Snow.

"Snow, listen to me," Lightning tried, speaking as clearly as possible. She took half a step forward, tense and ready for any retaliation he might try. "What did Adra do?"

Snow muttered something under his breath that Lightning still couldn't catch, and his eyes darted wildly over the ruins. Shaking her head, she felt raw emotion surge in her chest. Did he even recognise her? 

_A whole year as partners, and it's wiped away like it was never there,_ Lightning thought, just a little bitterly.

"Snow, _focus_." She spoke more loudly this time, edging forwards and determined to get through to him somehow. "Come on, I know you can do that for me."

Snow seemed to have spotted something in the nearby rubble - his brow furrowed as if in pain, and he lunged for it. Lightning's stomach clenched as she took in the length of rusted iron piping, and she sank down into a ready stance. 

So, that was the way Snow - or the beads - wanted to do things. She reached behind her, drawing the tesla from where she'd tucked it in the holster at the small of her back. She was more than ready to play, even if it _was_ against her partner and her best friend. The Farnsworth buzzed in her pocket, a distraction she tried her best to ignore.

Exhaling sharply, Lightning raised the tesla, charging the weapon and ensuring she was ready for any sudden movements. Snow simply hefted the bar, his blue eyes wide and wild. The hand he'd injured in their scuffle hung at his side, completely forgotten and worse than useless, but the pipe was a weapon...

"This is your last chance, Snow." It killed Lightning to be doing this, it really did. 

" _Shut up_ ," Snow snarled, his face contorting into vicious, angry guilt. He didn't so much look at Lightning as stare _through her_. "JUST SHUT UP!"

"Snow-" 

"I just want it to _end_ ," he said to her, his tone almost pleading. He looked down at the pipe in his hand. "One way or another!"

Lightning wasn't sure who exactly he was threatening - her, himself, or whoever was in his head - but it no longer mattered when he roared and lunged for her. Clenching her jaw, she held steady and fired off a single shot from her tesla. 

Snow didn't even bother to dodge or defend himself, and the blast of electricity hit him square in the chest. His expression became one of absolute peace - before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he dropped to the ground like a stone. 

Lightning fell to her knees at his side immediately, feeling sick in her stomach at what she'd done. 

"You'd better be sane when you wake, Snow," Lightning told him in a low breath, quickly securing his hands behind his back with her handcuffs before propping him into a sitting position. She waited a moment, wondering if the movement and pain from his hand alone would rouse him. Finally, impatient, she tapped him on his roughly-shaven cheek with the palm of her hand. 

Snow jerked, his eyes fluttering open wide and finally - _finally_ focusing on her. Then he made a pathetic-sounding and rather high-pitched whine, his jaw hanging open slightly as he doubled over and away from his injured hand. Lightning reached out and grasped his collar to steady him. 

After a few moments of heavy, panicked breathing, Snow looked at her again.

"Light - did you _break_ my hand?" Snow managed to gasp out, and Lightning finally found the strength in her relax. 

_That_ was definitely Snow. She'd been afraid of any lingering effects of the beads, but so far...

"You broke your own hand, quit being a baby about it." Lightning reluctantly let the corner of her mouth lift in a small smile, and she quickly moved to unlock his hands from behind his back. 

Snow cringed hard as they came free, and clicking her tongue softly, she grabbed his arm to take a look. He hissed a little in protest, but after a quick once over, Lightning gently let his wrist go. 

"We'll have to get it looked at soon, but Yun's gone after Adra and we need to go back her up." Lightning heard an explosion in the distance, and she swore under her breath. What the hell was Yun doing out there? Wasn't she meant to be all gung-ho about Oerba's peace? 

"Adra? _Yun_? What the hell happened while I was under?" Snow's eyes had gone wide, and he pressed the palm of his good hand to his forehead for a moment as if he was struggling to process it all.

"No time." Lightning climbed her her feet, feeling incredibly tired but still offering Snow a helping hand. "We've got to hurry."

"Yeah, yeah..." Snow winced as he accepted her offer, and his face had gone a little pale. "Light, listen, when I was under -"

Lightning looked at him then - really _looked_ at him. 

"I know, Snow," Lightning murmured, and from from the way his expression had fallen, he understood exactly what she meant. They had both seen things they'd wished they hadn't. There was no shame in that, though. "We'll talk about it later."

Finally, he sighed and tried to smile. "I'm gonna hold you to that."

"Wouldn't expect any less of you." Lightning jerked her head, and she and Snow set off in the direction of the last explosion.

###

Fang slipped Pandemonia's windpipe back into the inside pocket of her long coat, watching warily as the dust cloud ahead of her slowly began to clear. Beyond, there was nothing but the shift of rubble as it resettled. 

Using the pipe had been a drastic, if justified, measure. She'd almost lost Adra, Vanille's beads along with her - and that had been something Fang couldn't stomach. 

As the silence continued, she smirked. She rather hoped she'd killed the fool. 

Slowly, the debris in front of Fang began to move. She heard groans and coughing as Adra painfully moved the sheet of rusted metal from where it had fallen over her. 

_Well, I s'pose we'll just need to do this the hard way,_ Fang thought, and she wasn't too disappointed with that turn of events. In a few quick strides, she closed the distance between them. Not giving the woman a chance to rally, Fang hauled her to her feet. 

"Let me make this very clear to you," Fang told her, keeping her tone falsely pleasant. "I don't care who you are. I don't give a damn about whatever sob story you've cooked up to justify yourself. All I care about is making sure you stop disturbing my home's peace and quiet."

With a sneer, Fang tossed Adra back into the rubble, her mouth twisting in vicious self-satisfaction as the woman landed badly. She drew her tesla from where she'd stowed it at the small of her back, pointing it at Adra. 

"If you really are _Oerban,_ then you should already understand," Adra snarled, her dark eyes narrowing as she looked from Fang's face to the weapon. "Those people from Cocoon murdered the citizens of this town, and now they have the gall to try to make a buck off the pain they caused. Why can't I make them feel a fraction of the guilt they should feel?"

"And you think it's _your_ role to be doling out that punishment?" Fang laughed wearily. Oh, if only this idiot girl _knew_. "We're done here. I'm taking the beads - then I'll consider leaving you your life."

Fang closed the distance between them, and from Adra's expression, it looked as though she'd decided to play nicely. If that was true, then it was a marked change from the rest of the idiots with artifacts Fang had chased down over the years - and that was why she didn't buy it. Keeping the tesla fully charged and leveled at Adra's face, she drew back the woman's long sleeve. 

The beads were looped around Adra's wrist - really, they were meant to be worn as a necklace - and as Fang reached for them, the woman on the ground shifted her wrist subtly. The sunlight caught on the rainbow beads, bright and almost glaring in her eyes -

Fang realised her mistake immediately, and she snarled. She stumbled back quickly, desperately covering her eyes with the back of her arm. Sparks still swam behind her eyelids, swirling in a dizzying pattern that seemed to catch in her mind and draw her in further. Heat and sensation began to drain away from her extremities.

"Shit," Fang gasped out, angry at both herself and Adra. Her eyes were still screwed shut as she slammed her palm into the side of her head repeatedly. _Rookie mistake. I've been out of action a little too long. No excuses, though._

_"Fang."_ The voice seemed to float into her mind like a warm summer breeze, and she flinched as though she'd been struck across the face. It had been so long since she'd heard Vanille's voice. She'd thought she'd made her peace with the knowledge that she'd never get to hear it again. 

She didn't open her eyes, though, desperate not to look. She _knew_ what she'd see and she wasn't sure if she could survive that again. 

"Say what you want," Fang bit out, but Etro she could hear her voice wavering. "I'm not going to look! You aren't her, you aren't real, you're just -"

_"Why won't you look at me?"_ Vanille interrupted her, her voice soft and light. Fang could hear her approach - the clink of beads, the shift of clothing, and it was just how she remembered it. She couldn't look up, though. She _couldn't._

Vanille had survived the blast in Oerba, but she'd been horribly injured. Back then, Fang had hoped that she'd recover, that maybe they'd be able to lead a somewhat normal life when the rehabilitation was over. Maybe, if things had worked out that way, she wouldn't have ended up so completely fucked up in the head. 

Her whole body felt paralysed with hot-cold emotion, and her muscles had tensed so tightly that she felt like she was trembling. 

_"Aren't you proud of me, Fang?"_ Vanille's voice was still so sweet, but each word felt like a physical blow. _"I've finally gotten the courage to do what I need to do."_

Fang felt freezing metal press below her chin - _the gun_ \- and Vanille forced her to look up. She opened her eyes, unable to do anything other than obey whatever magic those beads held - and she nearly heaved. Just like she remembered, half of Vanille's skull was gone. 

Only, this Vanille wasn't dead. This Vanille was grinning at her. 

Fang stumbled back, bile rising up in her throat before she choked it back. She closed her eyes again, desperate to avoid seeing all that blood and exposed bone. 

Vanille hadn't died as a direct result of the Sanctum's blasts. While they were as much to blame for her death as ever, Fang's sister had been _healing._ She'd been _okay_. 

Nobody had counted on Vanille's guilt to fester and grow. From what Fang had gathered, she'd led the zealots through the town, thinking them nothing but visitors to Oerba. Once she'd learned the full fallout of her unthinking actions - actions she _shouldn't_ have blamed herself for - she'd grown quiet, withdrawn and guilty. 

She'd ended her life - a gun to the head. Quick, yes, but how much had she hated herself in the end to have done _that_? Fang had come home to find the body, and really, that had been the end of "Fang Yun" as she'd been. 

_"Rest with me, Fang."_ Vanille's soft voice belied her nightmarish appearance. "We don't belong in this time."

That, _that_ was not a lie that the beads could have made up. Fang was a woman out of time, stranded in a stark future with nothing left to her but her pain. The beads were playing off her real thoughts and fears, but knowing how they preyed on their victims didn't help her in the slightest. 

"Please." Fang's breath was shallow and she felt black spots begin to eat away at her vision. "Vanille, just let me do what I need to do -"

_"Come home. We're waiting for you."_ Vanille's hands felt freezing as she took a hold of Fang's arm with a grip that was bruising. 

Artifact or not, it was the truth. They were waiting for Fang, her friends and family, and that simple truth broke her.

###

Snow and Lightning found Yun and Adra not far from the old windmill, and as they approached, he saw Lightning raise her hand and motion for him to stay quiet. He nodded to her, even if his smile felt a little weak. Damn, his whole hand _throbbed_ , but what was he going to do about it now?

They kept to the shadows, and Snow kept a steady eye on Yun and Adra as they talked. Well, Yun was talking, Adra was waving that bloody bracelet in front of her eyes - 

"Light," Snow whispered harshly, tugging on the back of her suit jacket to grab her attention for good measure. She turned to him with a glare, looking as though she was going to turn him inside out if he spoke too loudly. 

"No, seriously. Before we jump in, you got any ideas?" Snow jerked his head back towards where Yun was standing amidst all the wreckage. From where they crouched in the shadows, he could see that her face had gone very pale, her expression one of fear, grief and anger. 

The edges of her form had started to go a little fuzzy too, and if they didn't do something soon, Yun would be taken to the same nightmare Snow had been trapped in. 

No matter what sort of stuff Yun had gotten up to that had angered the Regents so much, Snow couldn't sentence anyone to that. From Lightning's expression, neither could she, and she looked back to the confrontation unfolding before them with a keen and focused eye. 

He still wasn't sure what had happened between Lightning and Yun while he was under the beads' influence, but some essential part of their dynamic had shifted. He couldn't quite put his thumb on it, though. 

"You take Adra and the beads," Lightning said finally, her blue eyes cool and calculating as she looked back to Snow. "I'll deal with Yun."

Snow nodded once, trying not to think of how badly his hand would hurt if Adra put up a half-decent fight. He resettled his shoulders, watching Lightning flit around the edge of the shadowy wreckage to get closer to Yun. After giving her a short head start, he began to move into position, and he drew level with where Adra had started to pace restlessly. 

The beads on her arm gleamed in the afternoon sunlight, and Snow looked back to Yun's tense face. From here, he could see her hands shaking as she pointed her tesla at nothing at all. He tightened his grip on his own, tense and waiting.

"Hurry up, Light..." Snow murmured under his breath. "Any longer, and there will be nothing left of her to save."

Finally, it came - a flash of movement from the other side of the area as Lightning burst out of the shadows. She drew her fist back and slogged Yun - _hard._ Trying not to feel too sorry for the woman's jaw, Snow took that as his cue. 

Adra swore in surprise, her lips drawn back in a snarl as she moved to drag Lightning under too. Exhaling, he took careful aim at the agent's back and let off of a bolt of electricity. 

She crashed to the ground in a twitching heap. Snow didn't waste a second, sprinting to Adra's side and awkwardly rolling her onto her stomach. Without looking or missing a beat, he caught the cuffs that Lightning tossed his way, and secured the tourism agent's hands behind her back. Only when Adra was finally out of commission did Snow look up to see what Lightning had done with Warehouse Enemy Number One. 

Yun had fallen to the ground from the force of Lightning's blow, her cheek red and already beginning to swell as she rubbed at it in seeming confusion. She was staring up at Lightning. 

She didn't look like she believed Lightning had saved her - it was a feeling Snow could seriously understand.

"You did the same for me." Snow barely caught Lightning's soft words, but he didn't react. Sometimes, it was better to just let his partner do her thing - he was sure she'd explain herself later. 

He _really_ didn't expect Lightning to offer Yun a helping hand - or that that the gesture would be accepted. His normally over-suspicious and cagey partner pulled the rogue agent to her feet, and something passed between them.

After a few moments, Lightning sighed, drawing a foil bag and a pair of purple gloves from her pocket. Snow watched her hesitate for a moment, before she handed them to Yun. 

_What's really going on here?_ Snow narrowed his eyes, but wisely thought better of opening his mouth and drawing Lightning's ire.

Adra shifted slightly as Yun crouched at her side, defly unwinding the beads from where they had been secured about her wrist. Snow leaned his knee against the small of the woman's back, still more concerned with Yun in possession of an artifact than Adra getting her second wind and making a bid for freedom. 

Yun simply tossed the beads inside the foil bag, her expression unreadable as sparks showered out from the opening. The shadows in her eyes seemed to ease just a little when she finally zipped-locked the bag, and Snow had to admit that the tense knot that had formed between his shoulder blades had managed to loosen.

In the ruins around them, Snow could hear confused shouts as the missing tourists flashed back into existence. Adra's eyes had flickered open then, and she let out a long, low groan.

"Don't think we don't get why Pulsians would be angry over turning Oerba into a tourist trap," Snow told her in a low voice. 

"You're from Cocoon." Adra laughed, then, seeming so much more bitter than she was just hours ago. "You'll never understand."

Snow just shrugged, looking around at the ruins of the township. "Maybe not. But you don't get to play judge, jury and executioner to the world. It doesn't work that way, no matter how you justify yourself."

Adra just spat at the ground. She didn't want to hear it - and Snow could hardly blame her. It didn't change what they had to do, and he nodded to Lightning as she drew her Farnsworth out of her pocket to contact Sazh. 

Maybe some time in a cell would help cool Adra's head off. He rather doubted it, though.

###

Shortly before dusk, Lightning made her vague excuses to Snow and the Pulsian cops that had rocked up. They'd almost finished sorting out all the somewhat traumatised tourists, and it was nearly time to take the beads back to secure storage at the Warehouse. Snow had given her a very measured look as he'd stood with one of the Pulsian cops at the gate, but he hadn't questioned her. 

Lightning supposed he'd save the discussion for the trip back up to Cocoon. Lucky her. 

She found Yun standing in the shadows of the Oerban memorial stones, her hand pressed against the weathered marble monument and her head bowed. Lightning cleared her throat to make her presence known, and Yun slowly looked up. 

Her eyes looked dark-ringed and tired, and after the sort of day they'd all had, Lightning could hardly blame her. 

"We're heading back to the Warehouse," Lightning told the other woman, dispensing with the meaningless platitudes. "Did you mean what you said? That you really want to come back?"

A part of Lightning that she couldn't fully repress began to run scenario after scenario in her head. If Yun did come back...

"That's what I said." The woman's voice was flat and weary, and she leaned back against the monument. 

"You already know that it's not really up to me." Lightning wet her lips, resting her hand on her hip and looking Yun up and down critically. Slowly, she drew the foil bag from her pocket, holding it up for the other woman to see. "That said, if you're serious about coming back and making things right, you'd better give me the beads back."

Yun's expression had frozen, and for a moment, Lightning wondered if she'd misjudged the woman's good will towards her. 

"The beads," Yun said after a long pause. "They were my sister's. You know that."

"I do." Lightning sighed, then. Yun remained stubbornly silent. "I know what they mean to you. I know they're not just any old artifact. They were your sister's and that means something. But those things are used to torture and control - and I'm not going to just let you have them."

She was a little afraid of the stark pain on Yun's face, as she'd faded in and out of reality. She wasn't sure if she was more afraid that the woman would use it on herself, or on others. 

Finally, Yun exhaled, drawing the beads out of her coat pocket, using a fragment of a purple glove to protect herself from the artifact's influence. Lightning allowed the woman to drop the beads into the foil bag, and she ziplocked it up and tucked it back into her jacket's interior pocket. 

Yun turned her back on Lightning then, looking back at the monument with the faded names of the dead. Realising that she'd worn out whatever welcome she'd once had, Lightning began to walk back to where Snow would be waiting for her at Oerba's gates. 

Hesitating after a few steps, she turned. 

"Fang? Thanks. For today. Without you, this mission would have gone..." Lightning sighed softly, watching Fang tilt her head back again. "It would have ended badly."

Fang didn't so much as twitch at Lightning's words of gratitude, but after a moment, she looked over her shoulder. She wasn't smiling, but she looked a little less distraught than before. 

"I'll see you around, Lightning."

Lightning smiled slightly as she picked up the pace. The tourists were saved, Snow was safe, the beads were neutralised... And Fang? Lightning still wasn't quite sure what to make of her, or of her desire to come back to the Warehouse. 

She certainly had made life interesting, though.

**Author's Note:**

> And there we have it, the end of _the Oerban Beads_. The fic has been a long time coming - I think I originally planned it back in December, and then after Fangrai Feb/Gathering Storms ate me... Well, I'm really glad that I had a chance to finish this fic once and for all. 
> 
> The overall format of the fic is meant to be reminiscent of a Warehouse 13 episode, and leaves a few loose threads hanging - which means that I can continue this as a series of fic if the right idea strikes me. I already have a couple of ideas for future artifact shenanigans, however I am entirely open to suggestions on what people would like to see! 
> 
> Finally, the major episode inspirations for this fic were "For the Team", "Claudia", "Regrets" and a little "Time Will Tell". 
> 
> If you'd like updates as to current projects or just want to chat, feel free to come visit me on my tumblr: [zerrat](http://zerrat.tumblr.com/) (personal) and [zerratwritesstuff](http://zerratwritesstuff.tumblr.com) (writing)!


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